Scott Walker's Favorite Union Shop

摘要

For Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle is a symbol of American freedom and independence. The Wisconsin governor, a dedicated hog rider, stages campaign events at Harley dealerships and routinely invokes the Milwaukee-based brand during speeches. "I'm a guy with a wife and two kids and a Harley," he said in his closing statement at the Aug. 6 Republican debate. Yet Harley has succeeded thanks to two things that Walker's staked his career battling: government handouts and labor unions. Since 2000, the motorcycle manufacturer has received $54.5 million in local and state tax incentives and more than $2 billion in federal guarantees, according to Good Jobs First, a union-backed Washington nonprofit that tracks corporate subsidies. Its plants have been used as examples of how management can work with unions-Harley workers are represented by United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers-to make production more efficient and keep high-wage factory jobs in the U.S. "Harley is often held up as an American success story," says Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "There were unions involved, and there was government assistance at various times. It hasn't just been market forces that have made that happen."