As part of Harley-Davidson’s economic retraction, subsidiary Buell Motorcycle Co. will shut down its Wisconsin assembly plant for the last two months of 2009 and temporarily lay off 52 employees. Buell’s plans for a shutdown of the East Troy plant, which produces among other models its 1125R and 1125CR water-cooled sportbikes are outlined in a certified notice delivered to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development on September 8th. “It’s really related to the effects of the economy. That’s where we are,” said Pat Sweeney, spokesperson for the company. The last day of employment for the employees at the facility is scheduled for October 30th, and the plant will be shut down on November 2nd. Employees are expected to return to work on January 4th, 2010. Buell will pay its employees all earned wages and benefits at the time of the shutdown, provide eight days of holiday pay to the laid-off employees and continue their medical benefits during the shutdown. Assemblers, production technicians and material handlers make up most of the employees who will be temporarily laid off, according to the document. Back in April, Harley-Davidson announced that worldwide sales had declined 12% in the first quarter of 2009, with U.S. sales declining 9.7%. In response to declining sales, the company said it planned to ship between 264,000 and 273,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles to dealers worldwide this year, a 10% to 13% reduction from 2008. Declining production meant that the company, which originally planned to eliminate 800 hourly production jobs in 2009 and 2010, decided to increase the number of layoffs by 300 to 400, resulting in a total of 1100 to 1200 jobs eliminated. In July, Harley-Davidson announced plans to accelerate its plant consolidation strategy, shut down some factories permanently, and shut down others for up to 14 weeks.