York Town Square

People leave Harley-Davidson’s Springettsbury Township, Pa.’s, plant on the day that workers learned that 300 would be cut from the work force. (See additional photos below.) Background posts: Presidential visit No. 3: Bush makes like Bono, AMF-Harley in York, by the numbers and AMP’s and AMF’s alphabet soup spilled in same small town.

Since 1942, news has flowed from the Springettsbury Township plant that has housed York Safe & Lock, Blaw-Knox, Naval Ordnance Depot, AMF and Harley-Davidson.
Three strikes (1969, 1991, 2007). Three presidential visits (1987, 1999, 2006). Now 300 to be trimmed from Harley’s ranks.
There’s more.. .

Anna Jones inspects a finished bike as it rolls off the assembly line at the Harley-Davidson plant in Springettsbury Township in 2003.
Here’s a timeline of the company since 1901, from the York Daily Record/Sunday News files:
— 1901: William S. Harley, 21, drafts a blueprint drawing of an engine designed to fit into a bicycle.
— 1903: Harley and Arthur Davidson, 20, make available to the public the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle, built in Milwaukee. Walter Davidson, Arthur Davidson’s brother, joins the company.
— 1907: William A. Davidson, Arthur Davidson’s brother, joins the company.
— 1910: The bar-and-shield logo is used for the first time. It’s trademarked one year later.
— 1920: Harley-Davidson is the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.
The association with a hog starts when the racing team’s mascot, a pig, is carried on a victory lap after each race won by the Harley-Davidson team of racers. Sixty-three years later, Harley-Davidson begins HOG, Harley Owners Group.
— 1937: William Davidson dies at the age of 67.
— 1942: Walter Davidson dies at the age of 66.
— 1943: William Harley dies at the age of 63.
— 1950: Arthur Davidson dies at the age of 69.
— 1965: Harley-Davidson goes public for the first time, and the founders officially relinquish control.
— 1969: Workers at the Springettsbury Township plant walk out for a couple of months.
— 1971: Jeffrey L. Bleustein, who would become part owner of Harley-Davidson, is an engineer with AMF, which owned Harley-Davidson at the time.
— 1974: Workers at the Milwaukee plant walk out.
— 1981: Jeffrey L. Bleustein and a group of 12 other senior executives at Harley-Davidson buy the company from AMF.
— 1983: Harley Owners Group, known as HOG, starts. Membership grows from more than 90,000 to more than 500,000 by 2000.
— 1991: Ninety-one percent of the unionized workers at the Springettsbury Township plant vote to strike. The strike lasts two weeks. Major issues were overtime notification and hours.
— 1993: Bleustein becomes president and chief operating officer of Harley-Davidson.
— 1997: Bleustein becomes president and chief executive officer of Harley-Davidson; a year later, chairman is added to his title.
— 1999: President Clinton visits the York Harley-Davidson plant.
— 2003: The company expands its Springettsbury Township plant by 350,000 square feet, improving upon technology, work environment and efficiency.
— 2005: Jim Ziemer becomes CEO of Harley after Bleustein’s retirement.
— 2006: Harley opens its first Chinese dealership.
On Aug. 16, President Bush visits the motorcycle maker’s Softail plant in Springettsbury Township. It is the third visit to Harley by an incumbent president in 20 years.
— 2007: Ninety-eight percent of 2,722 unionized workers at the Springettsbury Township plant vote to strike after rejecting the company’s proposed contract. Workers later approve an agreement and return to work after three weeks.
—2008 : Harley says it will cut 730 jobs nationwide, including 370 union jobs — about 300 of which will be cut at the company’s Springettsbury plant — because of dropping sales. Harley stock falls from $36.79 to $36.09.
Some additional facts about Harley:
– Harley-Davidson’s Springettsbury Township plant is its largest manufacturing facility with, at least up until recently, 3,200 employees. The number stood at about 2,650 in May 2009.
– There are more than 970 independent Harley-Davidson dealers in Asia and the Pacific area, Canada, Europe, Latin America, South America and the United States.
– Harley-Davidson has seven facilities that perform manufacturing operations. They are in East Troy, Wis.; Menomonee Falls, Wis.; Tomahawk, Wis.; Wauwatosa, Wis.; Kansas City, Mo.; Manaus, Brazil; and Springettsbury Township.

George W. Bush visited Harley in York, Pa., in 2006, one of three presidents to step into the Harley plant since 1987. This week, Harley started efforts to trim 300 from its Springettsbury Township plant.
To see all Harley-Davidson-related posts from the start, click here.