It would appear that Harley-Davidson’s recent reports of poor sales (which I posted about here and here), due to the slumping US economy, are forcing some serious cutbacks for the American motorcycle giant.
Aside from other cost-cutting measures (for instance, you may remember that HD shut down production for 4 days back in fall ’07), Harley Davidson has just announced an “undisclosed” number of layoffs at the York, PA plant as of next week.
These layoffs are in addition to a previously announced annual shutdown of the plant, scheduled for June 30 through the July 4th holiday.
Harley-Davidson also says that “it plans to permanently cut about 300 workers from the York County plant. Harley spokesman Bob Klein says potential retirees are receiving information about early retirement, though he knows of no offers being made.” (quoted from The Sentinel)
My best wishes go out to all the HD employees who are affected -- this is a Hell of a bad time to lose a job (not that there is ever a good time, but things being as they are economically, it’s particularly bad news right now).
