Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Cutting off the hand that feeds
Call me crazy, but this proposal by Harley-Davidson would have cut pay for new employees for its new line. It didn't affect the employees already working at H-D. But somehow this was a bad deal for its current employees?
More good-paying, but less than current employees, jobs is good for all members of the union. Just imagine all of the new union dues going into its coffers. But logic doesn't exist in the modern union movement. They'd rather say no to paycuts even though it means that their jobs will go elsewhere.
This is where this stupidity shows:
Neither he nor any of seven Harley employees interviewed Monday would give their names. One said he feared retaliation for speaking publicly.
That employee expressed surprise at the vote outcome.
"I didn't think that they had enough backbone," he said. "I'm really proud of the members, I really am. There comes a time when you have to stand up and say enough's enough."
So you're proud you just sent good jobs out of state or even out of the country? I don't understand it at all. Here you had one of Wisconsin's biggest employers offering more jobs to the Milwaukee area, but instead they are going elsewhere. There will be a time where Harley-Davidson will say goodbye to Milwaukee and do all of their work elsewhere.
And as these jobs leave Wisconsin, where was Jim Doyle?
Hiding as usual. As of this writing, there has been no response from either the Capitol or his campaign office.
Mark Green, however, put out this press release late last night.
"For the second time in two weeks a flagship Wisconsin company has announced it will be moving jobs out of Wisconsin because it’s too expensive to do business here.
"Last week, Menards decided to locate 800 new jobs in Iowa and Ohio because Jim Doyle’s DNR refused to grant the necessary permits. Today, Harley-Davidson announced that it will expand operations elsewhere, where the cost of doing business is cheaper. The loss of these good-paying jobs is a huge blow toWisconsin’s efforts to rebuild our manufacturing economy.
"When Honda wanted to build a new plant in the Midwest, Jim Doyle said pursuing the plant would be ‘pointless’ and didn’t even pick up the phone. He claims his priority is helping existing state employers expand, but in the past week two major Wisconsin employers have sent jobs elsewhere. It’s disappointing to see jobs that should be going to Wisconsin workers leaving for other states.
"Wisconsin workers shouldn’t have to make concessions to allow their employers to compete with the cost of doing business in other states. The governor’s job is to make Wisconsin a great, affordable place to run a business, and Jim Doyle has failed to deliver for Wisconsin families. When I’m governor I won’t think it’s ‘pointless’ to pursue new companies and I sure won’t support the kind of taxes and regulation that on Jim Doyle’s watch have driven good jobs from Wisconsin to other states."
He's absolutely right. Two names snyomenous with Wisconsin are moving out of state. I really wonder if Doyle can run the Green Bay Packers out of the state too.
Labels: SE Wisconsin
