Wow. I had never heard of them before. There is (or was) a Fannie Farmer chocolate company in new england when i was a kid.
Posted on 02/25/2007 3:13:21 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
HERSHEY, PA — If Calvin Smith Jr. is going to lose his job, he’d like to know about it.
Smith and his fellow workers at The Hershey Co. already know the company plans to reduce its workforce by 1,500 jobs during the next three years and eliminate a third of its production lines. And when employees for a new plant to be built in Monterrey, Mexico, are factored in, the actual number of job losses at the company’s U.S. and Canadian plants could total 3,000.
But what Smith and his co-workers don’t know is when the ax will drop.
“Any human being with a soul has a fear of the unknown,” said Smith, who lives in Jonestown and serves as branch president of Local 464 of the Chocolate Workers of America. “We don’t know what our future is...We don’t want the great American chocolate factory to become the great Mexican chocolate factory.”
As workers left Hershey’s plant at 19 E. Chocolate Ave. on a recent workday, they expressed varying degrees of fear and resignation toward the future.
“It’s a sign of the times in America,” one man said.
“Since (Richard) Lenny’s taken over (as company president and CEO), all he does is cut jobs,” a woman said. “That’s not the answer.”
The bogeymen cometh
In Smith’s eyes, there is plenty of blame to spread around for what is happening. Among the bogeymen are the federal government, which has encouraged free trade through the North American Free Trade Agreement; the company’s management; and the Hershey Trust, which has a controlling interest in the company.
David Rudd, chairman of Lebanon Valley College’s Business Department, said Hershey’s decision was inevitable — and probably overdue.
“When you’ve got plants operating at 62 percent capacity (as Lenny reported Tuesday), that’s nonviable in any industry,” Rudd said. “Some of their plants are single-product. Companies just don’t do that. Flexible manufacturing has been the rage for 10 or 15 years.”
By combining plants, “you can have one plant at 92 percent,” he said, noting that most companies try to operate at 85 to 90 percent capacity.
Hershey runs 20 plants: three in Derry Township; three elsewhere in Pennsylvania (Lancaster, Hazleton and Reading); three in Canada; one in Mexico; one in Brazil; and the rest scattered from Connecticut to Hawaii.
Although Hershey’s employees are frustrated by the lack of clarity in the company’s Feb. 16 announcement to reduce its workforce, Rudd said the company was compassionate compared to some others.
When Otis Elevator decided to leave New Haven, Conn., to move its manufacturing to the Caribbean, it did so with no advance warning, he explained.
“Here, people get a chance to adjust,” Rudd said. “It’s more brutal to go to work one day and have someone say, ‘Here are your last two paychecks.’”
We’re No. 43
David N. Taylor, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, said he’s having difficulty trying to analyze the Hershey situation.
“We don’t know exactly how all this is going to manifest itself,” he said.
Taylor points a finger at the “bizarre and antiquated” U.S. sugar subsidy, which inflates the price of sugar to “two or three times the price on the world market.”
By shifting production to Mexico, Hershey can buy sugar at the world price, which in turn can make its product pricing more competitive with its international competitors, Cadbury-Schweppes of Great Britain and Nestle of Switzerland.
Production costs in Mexico are about 10 percent of those in the United States and Canada, Lenny said. The goal is to increase Hershey’s product volume outside the States and Canada from its current 6 percent to about 20 percent in 2010.
Taylor said Pennsylvania’s overall business climate is “not good.”
While a national manufacturing recession began in 2000 and ended in July 2003, Pennsylvania’s slump has continued, with a net loss of more than 200,000 jobs since July 2000.
“Pennsylvania manufacturers need the state government to wise up,” Taylor said. “Fiscal discipline is the first and most necessary step.”
That means limiting government spending, which has increased 28 percent during Gov. Ed Rendell’s tenure, he said, adding that limits on lawsuit abuse are also needed.
Forbes magazine recently ranked Pennsylvania as the 43rd most business-friendly state.
“Virginia was number one, and North Carolina was number three,” Taylor said. “Those are our competitors. ... We should be asking, ‘When will it be smart for businesses to decide to operate and expand in Pennsylvania?’”
Only rumors
All of the analysis is small comfort to the men and women whose families could be affected by the company’s downsizing.
“The only thing I know is what has been in the paper,” said Bruce Hummel, the business agent for Local 464, which represents 2,500 workers in Hershey and Reading. “We’re hearing rumors. We’re hearing the plant in Canada (Smiths Falls, Ontario) is going to shut down. I really don’t know.”
The reason for the workers’ lack of information is simple, Hummel said. Hershey’s administration “is out for the stockholders.”
The lowest-paid union-scale plant job pays $15.20 an hour, he said. An average wage is $18.78 an hour.
“We have high-paid jobs thanks to the negotiations of the union,” he said. “Reese (nonunion) workers are getting union-scaled wages to keep the union out.”
Although the main plant at 19 E. Chocolate Ave. is the oldest of the company’s 20 plants, it “is held to high standards and produces a quality product,” Hummel said.
Half of Hershey’s 13,000 employees work at the companies’ six Pennsylvania plants (Hershey, West Hershey, Reese, Lancaster, Hazleton and Reading), company spokesman Kirk Saville said.
But, according to one union spokesman, the problem is even closer to home.
“I believe half (of our members), at least half, live in Lebanon County,” said Melvin Myers, president of Local 464 and an employee at the West Hershey plant.
Myers, who lives in Campbelltown, started working at the main plant on East Chocolate Avenue 38 years ago, right after his discharge from the Marine Corps.
“Hershey has not been telling us a lot,” he said. “They have been downsizing some departments a little at a time.”
Battle of attrition
Myers could have retired in November, but he decided to keep working because he has another year left in his term. He plans to run for re-election next year.
“If I win I will stay,” he said. “If I lose, I’ll retire. My joy comes from the union work I do.”
Attrition could play a limited role in force reduction, Hummel explained. Between 40 and 50 workers usually retire each year.
LVC’s Rudd said the line employees won’t be the only ones affected in the event of layoffs.
“It could also be painful for managers,” he said. “As a manager, you know changes are coming way before the other people do. You’re carrying that around in your heart. It’s sort of like cut-down day in the NFL. There’s pain for people in the middle, the middle managers. And some of them are next in line to go.”
Hummel remembered the last great trauma for the company’s employees, when the Wrigley Co. attempted to buy Hershey in 2002.
“Back then we thought the trucks were heading to Chicago,” he said. “Now I guess they’re heading to Mexico.”
And if the bulk of the job cuts come in Dauphin County, Hummel said, “It could be devastating to central Pennsylvania.”
Even so, Rudd said, the region’s economy is “still quite robust.” There is more diversity here than in many places, with agriculture, health care, government, education and transportation among the strong components.
“There are not that many monster employers,” he said. “It’s much more diverse here than in other areas.”
Anxiety and fear
While that is encouraging news, it doesn’t mitigate the immediate wave of fear going through Hershey’s employee ranks.
“We have a lot of people afraid,” said Myers, whose wife, Joyce, has worked for 24 years at 19 E. Chocolate Ave. “They don’t know what to expect. We don’t know how to encourage them or console them. You’re anxious to find something out, but you’re kind of afraid.”
Although Myers understands market forces are at work, “it’s just shocking,” he said. “I never, never thought we would see this day.”
For Smith, this is the second time he is looking at a possible job loss.
“I grew up in Lebanon,” he said. “I worked at Textile Printing on 25th Street for years.”
When that company closed, it led to his career at Hershey, “the best thing that ever happened to me,” Smith said. “Hershey had better benefits and better pay.”
Smith’s wife, Kristi, also works for the company, so they are looking at the potential loss of two jobs.
“There are a lot of families there,” Smith said. “We consider all of the people family up there. We treat them like family. It’s a nice place to work, and I hope we can continue to work there. There are a lot of dedicated people.”
I remember visiting Hershey years ago when they actually allowed tours of the plant. They cut those tours out because of safety considerations.
I don't think they come here because of the plumbing. Unsafe water isn't so good. I mentioned corruption. Many of them seem to live in shanties with no screens or windows, just a hole. I just wonder if they know how much more everything costs here relative to the low wages they are willing to work for. Somehow they seem to manage. They keep coming. Something else is driving this besides just the "American dream."
Which is what people want. It is because it, and other stuff like it goes on for decades. Therefor it has the support of the American people.
No, as the article says that is the lowest pay. If people are complaining about losing their jobs there the pay must be more than adequate. I'm sure that the dollar figures quoted don't include any of the benefits.
Wow. I had never heard of them before. There is (or was) a Fannie Farmer chocolate company in new england when i was a kid.
Sure. Look on the label: Mfd. by The Hershey Company Under License from Cadbury Ltd.
:^) It definitely has a better taste -- not gritty.
I mentioned plumbing, because it is a convenience, and who wouldn't be for another convenience. They know that the cost of living is higher here, but come anyway, because the quality of life is better. The wages may be low, but when there are more than the lawful occupancy sharing the rent, it doesn't mean much. They can still party. And we keep making it easier for them. Credit cards, bank accounts, free wire transfers, mortgages, car loans, translators, education for their kids, health care, etc. all in Spanish.
Suger growers? Unionized? Anything to support that?
We get the runs from eating their vegetables and now they want to make chocolate? No thanks.
That was a fair assessment of my line of thinking...
You can still view the how it is made by going to Chocolate World.
Do you make a distinction between unions and lobbying groups and other professional organizations, such as a grange?
Mexican Coke goes for about a dollar a single serve bottle; you can get 2 liters of domestic for the same price. The domestic is made with corn syrup, you have a shot at real sugar in the Mexican version - in short, Mexican Coke is real Coke, 'classic Coke' is not.
I know. I have visited Chocolate World but I enjoyed the plant tours more.
$15.20 to push a broom... and they wonder why they are losing their jobs!!!
"Ummm...hey...I got six extra almonds in my Hershey bar."
"Er...are you sure those are almonds?"
..."Do almonds have little feet and wings folded tightly against their backs?"
The United States job market and production capabilities are being sold out to foreign nations while we as a nation drink the Kool Aid. BTW looked at a Kool-Aid label lately? Yep we indeed now drinkng the Free Trade sell out the USA Kool Aid. All our elected friends in DC tell us it's good for us too. Yum yum. Tried the NWO globalist lemon flavor yet?
That said, we shouldn't put Mexicans over Americans when it comes to jobs..in this country.
I'm all for certain industries setting up new operations in Mexico. I don't think anyone in little ole Hershey PA EVER thought their jobs would head down South. It's just not right.
sw
There used to be a Fannie Farmer factory and outlet store in Clarksville, VA. It's closed.
Personally I prefer Cadbury chocolate, so the only Hershey's I ever buy is plain bars for the occasional summertime S'more. We send Kisses to some friends in England at Christmas, they say they remind them of Christmas parcels my parents sent to them in the 50's when rationing was still on. Who can figure what will trigger Nostalgia. :) I dwvwloped my fondness for Cadbury the same way from Christmas parcels they sent us in the 60's.
I did like the toasted coconut that Fannie Farmer made, can't say I ever had a Trinidad. I've always made my own chocolate covered candied fruits and peels.
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