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Hershey to Close Reading, Pa., Plant
Forbes ^ | April 23, 2007

Posted on 04/24/2007 8:21:11 AM PDT by Wolfie

Hershey to Close Reading, Pa., Plant

The Hershey Co., the nation's leading candy maker, said Monday that it will shut down a plant in Reading as part of a wider move to cut labor and materials costs.

The closing, which will affect about 260 unionized employees, is the company's second plant-closing announcement in a little over two months.

"Our network operates at less than half of capacity (over seven days) and we must make significant changes to remain competitive," Hershey (nyse: HSY - news - people ) spokesman Kirk Saville said.

Saville said the company would work out severance agreements with the workers and close the plant in 2008. Hershey is looking to shift more manufacturing to India, China, Mexico and contractors in the United States, and has already announced it will cut up to 900 of the 3,000 workers from three plants in its hometown.

Hershey originally purchased the Reading plant from the Dietrich Corp. in 1987 and brought aboard the Luden's cough drop brand and the Fifth Avenue chocolate bar.

The plant also makes York Peppermint Patties, Reese's crispy crunch bars and Jolly Ranchers. The plant is about 40 miles east of the company headquarters in the town named for the chocolate magnate, Milton S. Hershey.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: hershey; manufacturing; melamine; pityparty; sayunionyes; usda
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To: Monterrosa-24
And why have Zagnut bars become so hard to find?

The plant in Pittsburgh where they were made closed about 10 years ago. Some other company bought the brand, but it's been a while since I have seen them too. I don't know if, or how widely they are marketed now.

I do know that with the high US sugar tariffs, it's tough for domestic candy makers to compete on the world market.

21 posted on 04/24/2007 8:46:55 AM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: Wolfie
"Our network operates at less than half of capacity (over seven days) and we must make significant changes to remain competitive," Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville said.

IOW, these (unionized) workers cost the company more in pay then they turn out in work.

22 posted on 04/24/2007 8:47:31 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: AuntB
...and contractors in the United States...

They'll still make it here, but in a right-work-state, I'll bet. PA did it to themselves. I'm not gonna blame Hershey for not being able to make it in PA. Same thing's happening to NYS. Same reasons, too.

23 posted on 04/24/2007 8:49:44 AM PDT by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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To: Wolfie

Backstory....Rosie O’Donnell gives up chocolate as part of a new diet./sarc


24 posted on 04/24/2007 8:50:32 AM PDT by Don Corleone (Leave the gun..take the cannoli)
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To: Wolfie
Thanks unions. Now we’ll have Chicom Hershey Kisses.

Goodbye America.

25 posted on 04/24/2007 8:50:58 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (Liberals, A terrorists best friend!)
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To: 1rudeboy

” I suspect that he wouldn’t mind making the rest of us pay two to three times the world price for sugar”

We already are ... which is another reason confectioners are closing down or moving jobs overseas. But agriwelfare and subsidies roll on.


26 posted on 04/24/2007 8:57:21 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: Don Corleone

What happens is Rosie gets the “Hershey squirts”? Will one square of toilet paper be enough? Probably will take a whole roll - maybe two.


27 posted on 04/24/2007 8:58:29 AM PDT by hkp123
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To: 4yearlurker

And they will be “soft yellow” too!


28 posted on 04/24/2007 8:58:44 AM PDT by geezerwheezer (get up boys, we're burnin' daylight!!!)
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To: 4yearlurker

(_?_) Nobody in the U.S. works for $2.50 to $12.50 a week as the producers in China pay. No matter what the union workers were being paid, Hershey would be outsourcing.
It’s part of the ongoing raping of the American middle class by business, the Republican and Democrat parties. Those three are selling out this nation for the money. It’s “W”ism working at its full potential.
“W”= Jimmy Carter light but he’s getting close to the real thing.


29 posted on 04/24/2007 8:59:27 AM PDT by em2vn
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To: em2vn

Baloney. The unions have a strangle hold on big business and local governments. The unions are bleeding both dry. They are killing the Pittsburgh Port Authority. Bus drivers make 91,000 a year,don’t pay for medical,and have a huge retirement package. Unions are bloated and corrupt.


30 posted on 04/24/2007 9:04:51 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (Liberals, A terrorists best friend!)
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To: AuntB
Judging from most of the comments on this thread, we can paraphrase Reagan's dictum to the following:

If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
If politicians buy access, subsidize it.
If jobs are lost, complain.

31 posted on 04/24/2007 9:06:10 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Wolfie
So, the union has driven the cost of labor up to the point that Hershey has decided that it can get a better deal for it elsewhere, yet we're supposed to hate Hershey?

I don't think so. They're doing what they think is best for the company, you can't blame them for that. Their responsibility is to make a profit for the shareholders, not to make sure everyone has a job in candyland.

32 posted on 04/24/2007 9:06:31 AM PDT by Lusis ("Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.")
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To: Wolfie
Can't they just charge an extra 10 cents for the damned chocolate bar and keep the jobs here?

I hate boycotts, but to tell you the truth, I don't think I'll buy any more Hershey products.
33 posted on 04/24/2007 9:08:17 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: Logic n' Reason

I used to be an AFL-CIO member and my level 2 pay rate topped out at about $12.50. There was only one union rate about a dollar higher than mine with only 3 or 4 people earning that.

It wasn’t the unions that killed that shop, it was simple greed. Collins and Aikman bought the company and immediately started closing the other shops. Ours was the headquarters and was still fairly profitable.

When they finally did close the doors they didn’t do it immediately they started cutting hours back to part time and hiring illegals through a temp service at $6 an hour. When they had driven all the full time employees away they sold the contracts back to GM and Chrysler, sold the equipment and dumped the empty building.

Incidentally, Collins and Aikman is the company David Stockman was involved with before being indicted for defrauding investors.


34 posted on 04/24/2007 9:09:30 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Peace without victory is a temporary illusion.)
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To: Wolfie
Saville said the company would work out severance agreements with the workers and close the plant in 2008. Hershey is looking to shift more manufacturing to India, China, Mexico

Great news for India, China and Mexico!!

35 posted on 04/24/2007 9:11:23 AM PDT by dragnet2
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To: Logic n' Reason
Millee, A union laborer at Hershey's makes between $12.50 to upwards of $22 per hour; as they do with other candy manufacturers.

Yeah, those greedy workers. How dare they expect job security. They should go work at Walmart so the taxpayers can pay their benefits. Because that's SO much better than a unionized plant where people make (gasp) 13 to 20 bucks an hour.
36 posted on 04/24/2007 9:11:28 AM PDT by mysterio
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To: Wolfie

Just what PA needs, another plant closed. /sarcasm


37 posted on 04/24/2007 9:12:21 AM PDT by bmwcyle ( Freep Fox they drop the ball on GOE)
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To: mysterio
"...unionized plant where people make (gasp) 13 to 20 bucks an hour..."

Exactly. Very hard to compete with a worker with equal skills that make the exact same amount PER WEEK; and is extremely happy to get it!

38 posted on 04/24/2007 9:13:57 AM PDT by Logic n' Reason (Don't piss down my back and tell me it's rainin')
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To: mysterio

Me too. I buy a `six-pack’ or two of Hershey bars every week or so.
But if I’m going to buy foreign, I’ll buy Toblerone.
(Hershey’s curdles their milk anyway, if you wondered why the sour taste.)


39 posted on 04/24/2007 9:14:32 AM PDT by tumblindice (Buy American)
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To: TexasCajun

“Y’all hear that suck’n sound now? Well, do ya? “

I thought I heard a suck’n sound during the Clinton Administration.


40 posted on 04/24/2007 9:16:49 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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