KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Several Missouri lawmakers came together to urge Harley-Davidson to reconsider closing its Kansas City Assembly Plant.
On Friday, Missouri U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt and Congressmen Sam Graves and Emmanuel Cleaver II all signed a joint letter to Harley-Davidson CEO Matthew Levatich.
The letter reads, in part:
“We understand that the domestic and global sales environments are key drivers in business decisions like this. But we also believe Harley-Davidson’s Kansas City Assembly Plant and its workers produce a top-quality product that can compete with any other facility in the United States or around the world. We urge you to reconsider the decision to close the plant.”
According to Harley-Davidson’s full-year 2017 results report, the company plans to improve manufacturing operations and cost structure by commencing a "multi-year manufacturing optimization initiative" anchored by the consolidation of its motorcycle assembly plant in Kansas City, Missouri into its plant in York, Pennsylvania.
The plant is expected to close in early 2019. 800 jobs will be eliminated with the closure. 450 of those will be added to the York plant.
Currently, the metro has about 78,000 jobs in manufacturing and has added 5,000 in the past five years, according to MARC.
Last week, Procter & Gamble announced it would close its plant in Kansas City, Kansas in 2020. The site employs 280 full-time employees and about 350 contracted workers.
