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- BUSINESS, Page 67Business NotesMANUFACTURINGHarmony in Hog Heaven
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- Harley-Davidson, one of U.S. industry's inspiring success
- stories of the '80s, roared from near bankruptcy to market
- dominance through a combination of Japanese production methods,
- stiff temporary tariff help and, most visibly, employee
- involvement in the enterprise. But last year the
- Milwaukee-based maker of monster motorcycles -- hogs, to their
- fans -- began pushing for more involvement than some workers
- wanted. Result: in early February employees at Harley's assembly
- plant in York, Pa., walked out. Management had proposed, among
- other things, varying factory employees' pay according to the
- quality and quantity of their production, while union members
- wanted the security of a fixed wage. The strike threatened to
- unravel years of productive cooperation and undermine one of
- the most heartening examples of U.S. manufacturing's turning
- itself around. Last Friday company and union announced they had
- reached tentative agreement on a new contract. Neither side
- would disclose terms.
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