During October and November of 2006 several high-ranking executives with Harley-Davidson sold over 1.5 million shares of stock valued at over $101 million, making a net profit of $45.9 million, according to an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal February 5. Those listed in the article as selling large amounts of stock included Harley-Davidson’s retired CEO and current Chairman of the Board of Directors Jeff Bleustein, current CEO and President Jim Ziemer, the company’s general counsel and its chief accountant. Bleustein, whose deadline to cash in shares was approaching according to the company, sold 960,000 shares worth $62.3 million. The article pointed out that when Harley-Davidson “insiders” sold off large amounts of stock in 2001 and 2004, a period of flat or negative stock performance followed. Harley-Davidson has seen strong financial growth over the last 20 years, since the company’s stock went public. Its stock hit a record high of $75.87 per share on the New York Stock Exchange last November. Harley-Davidson’s stock closed Friday, February 2 at $70.10, up $1.34 per share, even though 2722 Union workers at the company’s largest manufacturing plant, in York, Pennsylvania, walked out on strike earlier the same day, forcing the plant to shut down. Union workers, whose seven-year contract expired February 1, voted almost unanimously — to strike because they felt they were being unfairly asked to make concessions even though the company was making record profits, according to a January 31 article appearing on the website of the York Daily Record (www.ydr.com). In the fourth quarter of 2006, Harley-Davidson reported an 11.9% increase in revenue, to $1.5 billion, and a 9.7% increase in profits, to $252.4 million. Harley-Davidson offered a 4% pay increase during each year of a new, three-year contract with the Union but only if the Unionized employees agreed to start paying some of their own health care expenses and to allow new workers to be hired at lower starting wages. According to Harley-Davidson, Union employees previously paid no health insurance premiums and only “minimal out of pocket expenses.” The goal, according to Harley-Davidson, was to manage future costs. The last time Union workers at the York, Pennsylvania Harley-Davidson plant struck was February 1991. That strike lasted two weeks, according to the York Daily Record.