CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Union official: Workers won't like Harley CEO's $6.4M pay package
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Updated: 03/16/2010 11:53:47 AM EDT

The union manager for employees at York's Harley-Davidson plant said workers probably won't be thrilled to learn the company's CEO received a pay package valued at $6.4 million during his first eight months on the job.

Keith E. Wandell received a base salary of $650,025 from his start date of May 1 through the end of 2009, according to proxy a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He received a bonus of $780,030 and stock and option awards valued at $4.9 million at the time they were issued.

He also received other compensation worth $22,515, which includes a cash payment of $19,733 instead of perquisites.

Wandell, 60, replaced James L. Ziemer, who retired last year after 40
years with Harley-Davidson and four years as its CEO. Before taking over Harley, Wandell was chief operating officer of the car battery and building ventilation systems maker Johnson Controls Inc.

During his final four months as CEO, Ziemer received a pay package valued at $2.9 million. That includes a base salary of $455,144, a bonus of the same amount and stock and options valued at $1.9 million when they were granted.

He received other compensation worth $44,221, including $14,800 in cash instead of perks and $22,521 in contributions to a deferred compensation plan.

Hard times: The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker has hit hard times recently as consumers put off buying its high-end bikes. The company ended the fourth quarter with a loss $218.7 million, its
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first quarterly loss in 16 years.

The company has been laying off workers, closed factories and shuttered or sold unwanted brands.

Harley is restructuring its plant in Springettsbury Township, laying off workers and downsizing its campus to save money.

York's union members -- represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 175 -- agreed to concessions in a new seven-year contract in December after the company threatened to relocate.

Shortly after, Harley announced it was staying in York but cutting the union staff from about 1,950 to between 700 and 800, with as many as 300 casual workers who are called to work as needed.

Union leader: Union manager Tom Santone said he wasn't surprised by Wandell's pay. He said every worker from the top down at Harley should be "taking a cut" because of the company's finances, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

He said union employees have absorbed most of the blow from the economic downturn, and they probably won't be heartened to learn their leader makes so much money.

"I'm sure they're going to be upset but I don't think anybody's going to be surprised," he said. "The workers are the ones who always seem to be the brunt of the cuts. This isn't just the Harley-Davidson routine here, this is corporate America."

He said reports of CEO pay turn people off.

The total pay calculations include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year, according to The Associated Press.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC.

A company spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday morn