Harley Davidson Anti-Union Reaction Paper

1. Would you expect a stronger anti-union response from an employer in manufacturing or an employer in a service industry?
The strength of unions has become weak in both industries. However, I would expect to find a stronger anti-union response in a service industry. In the manufacturing industry unions have had a stronger presence because you are usually dealing with larger companies that can have more competitive wages verse smaller service industry companies. A smaller company may not have the ability to bargain due to their lack of profits. The fear that increasing their wages will force them to increase the price of their services has led them to become anti-union. The manufacturing industry is not far behind on this decision. “Unionized manufacturing
There is only a little research on this, but it has been found that labor-management committees can be successful even when there is a lack of good management. However, labor-management is difficult to sustain. “Harley-Davidson and the IAM and PACE unions worked together for over 10 years to increase productivity, quality, and profitability (Fossum, pg. 470). During this time the labor-management cooperation program was quite successful, but when the economy took a turn for the worse concessions were forced to be made. This affected the programs, which in turn affected the workers (Fossum, pg.470). Organizations must always remain competitive in order to be successful. They are continuously looking for ways to cut cost that will eventually affect the employees. The benefits of the employees are usually the first thing that a company looks at when they want to improve their bottom line. If at the time of bargaining the company agreed to certain benefits for the employees, it is likely that the agreement they had will be forced to be re-negotiated. Most of these programs are not created for