From the story in your link: " Because of the fee tacked on for importing a motorcycle from the US, it is cheaper for Harley to setup a factory in Thailand and build bikes there rather than build them here and send them there."

Build means assemble CKD kits in Thailand, not "manufacture" the motorcycles in Thailand. Why do so many who post fail understand this?

 

Never said otherwise... As I said before, HD will be building/assembling (choose whatever word you like) the bikes in Thailand for that market to get around the tariffs.

 

What I'm saying is $25 an hour is not all that great for a single family income, yes Philly has some depressed areas as do many areas through out PA, if you want the guy/gal that builds your bike to make $10 - $12 an hour then send your bike maker over seas & you`ll get it done for cents on the dollar, Harleys are a luxury item - plain & simple so the folks building them should make more than a cashier at Aldis - here near Pittsburgh fast food workers are making close to $15 an hour and that transcends into the Philly market as well, a 39K house is a joke unless its in what we affectionately call a HUD neighborhood.

you would be hard pressed to build a 2 car finished garage for 39K using a contractor! training & skills, many here have those - what field you want them in? steel is done which was a huge bust here that sent people to - North Carolina, Minnesota, Florida & elsewhere. Nuclear plants are on the downturn so there goes: nuclear physicist, radiation control techs, plumbers, fitters, electricians, traveling operators, switching dispatchers, containment personnel & the list goes on........ all very good jobs, our colleges are doing good then our children leave to go where the work is & guess what? that depletes the school per capita & those taxes have been going up & up............so if $25 an hour is good for some & I happen to agree - I made it on much less & had to work 60+ hours a week but that's no longer the case!

" But, holding companies hostage to obtain wages that put the company at an international disadvantage is the wrong answer" this sentence right here is total BS...... no one is holding a company hostage & what international disadvantage? Trump should tax the crap outta HD for such a move - the workers want what is fair!!!! c`mon a 41k CVO - that's fair pricing, how about " a company holding workers hostage by the threat of sending jobs over seas for 3rd world labor rates so they can profit more than they did before?" Now tell me why & it has yet to be answered: if Unions are the reason HD did this - then why are the metric , British & Italian bike markets charging dam near the same as HD`s union built bikes & in some cases there even more! Unions have nothing to do with it & neither does $25-$26 an hour, HD is the typical Corporation that was once a highly respected manufacturer that now wishes to go the way other greedy corporations have gone so to keep making more & more at the expense of workers wages, product quality & lastly they do it with as little honesty / integrity they can muster while bending you over for a 26k roadglide that will soon be made by 17yr old kids making a bag of rice with a carrot as a side dish for an hourly wage (joking of course - but hey!!!)

Harleys sales are declining due to a change of interest with todays youth - its not wages or that would have been an issue in 2008 with the housing market crash, so lets have the workers at HD take concessions & lets see if the bike prices drop..........you think????? I was once told by a guy when the Steel mills were closing - he said to concede in wages would give those greedy bastards a bigger bonus, so take all you can, give nothing back & when the wells dry - move on............that's what their gonna do! so **** em!!!

well just have to see how it plays out?

 

I have made clear that "if you close the Kansa City plant I will never buy a new Harley Davidson again". I have purchased 3 brand new Harley Davidsons in the last 3 years and spent a fortune on upgrades, if Harley Davidson's master plan is to lose customers like me and sell their new electric toy motorcycles to make up the difference than all I can say is good luck.
Mabey the Harley Davidson CEO can hang out with the Sears CEO and they can discuss how they ruined two iconic American companies, Mabey they can sing along with Frank Sinatra " I did it my way"...

 

So no trip to Thailand then...

 

So,, how much would a Harley Davidson cost if we didn't have the global economy and the ability to have parts made cheaply in other countries? I stand by the point I was making. Things are different now than they were decades ago. Regulations, EPA, taxes and many other factors have driven up the cost of manufacturing everything in the USA. Harley's would probably cost 3 times what we pay now if every part were made here in the U.S., So yes without the help of cheap labor from around the globe H-D wouldn't exist today. Too many people wouldn't be able to afford one.. Get rid of all of the added expenses to manufacturing here and then things might come closer to evening out in the end.

 

I'm still trying to figure why unions always support Dems while Dems love illegal immigrants. Don't illegal immigrants take jobs here and flood the market with low wage, low skill labor?

It seems the best solution would be to build a new plant in a sanctuary state using low wage illegal immigrants and then hire them to work in the factory. HD makes more profit while we can purchase low cost Harley Davidson motorcycle with a true made in the USA sticker.

I surprised unions don't love Trump, he's the one pushing for tariffs on cheap imports, doing what he legally can to level the sales playing field in the US and personally calling on companies like Ford, Lockheed, Toyota, etc. to build plants here....and they are!

 

Generally speaking the Democrats do what the unions want and line their pockets. All of the stimulus money Obama spent/wasted on the American Recovery jobs went to unionized companies. President Trump is a different case and he does have quite a bit of union support.... The blue collar union workers who would normally vote democrat largely supported Trump. It's how he won states he was expected to lose.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/o...ike-trump.html

 

This topic has been beat to death, here and in a half dozen other threads in the past few years. Time to move on. Getting too political.