got contract? Harley's CEO does

MATC isn’t the only employer guilty of double standards when it comes to employee treatment.

Just last fall, Milwaukee’s Harley Davidson workers were pressured into giving concessions in wages, pensions and healthcare benefits. And Harley’s employees in Hershey Pennsylvania resisted the same fate only by calling the company’s bluff and going on strike.

It wasn’t as if Harley needed relief. This is an enormously successful company that earned $1.50 billion last year. Its profits increased a healthy 9.7% and revenue 11.9%.

Yet, Harley claimed it needed concessions to remain competitive!

Today we learned that while the company was securing givebacks from the people who make the bikes, its chief executive officer, James L. Ziemer, received $4.25 million in compensation last year.

I wonder how that contributed to the company’s future competitiveness?

Ziemer's compensation included a $824,551 salary, $989,461 in compensation under a nonequity incentive plan and $75,697 in other compensation, including a non-qualified deferred compensation plan matching contribution of $25,824. He also received stock and option awards with an estimated value of $2.36 million at the time they were granted.

Ziemer also acquired 106,344 shares in 2006 with an estimated value of nearly $5.34 million.

Harley didn’t need concessions from its employees. It went after them because it thought it could. “got contract,? James Ziemer does!”