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Well, one iconic American brand – Harley-Davidson – is turning conventional corporate wisdom on its head.
The company has assembled its famous “hogs” in York, Pa., since 1973, employing members of the United Steelworkers and Machinists union.
Things worked well until 2009, when the Great Recession pushed Harley-Davidson close to collapse. The closure of its York plant was seemingly inevitable. But instead of moving to Mexico or busting the union, management worked with labor to make the plant competitive again.
As Adam Davidson wrote on Feb. 2 in the New York Times magazine:
Harley built a completely new plant, while labor and management worked together to find ways to reduce inefficiency and boost productivity. Davidson reports that the York plant employs 150 “problem-solvers” to find ways to build better motorcycles.
Davidson concludes that Harley-Davidson is proof that experienced union members can be not a cost but an asset
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Photo used a Creative Commons license from flickr user Matthias Schack.
