Posted on 06/09/2007 8:15:48 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Edited on 06/10/2007 7:30:25 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
OAKDALE, Calif. - On a warm May weekend in this Central Valley town, the irony was thick.
As usual, the annual Chocolate Festival was drawing hordes of fun-seekers. But Hershey Co., Oakdale's biggest employer and the nation's biggest candy company, is closing its plant here, eliminating all 575 jobs. The company will open a factory in Monterrey, Mexico, to handle the production.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
The one thing I think might be behind it is that it could be a message sending move to scare the employees in their other plants that they could be on the street too.
However, too many companies have not been real successful in negotiating with their union represented employees. Despite the financial troubles in other manufacturing firms (GM, Ford, Chrysler, Harley Davidson for example)the workers and their union reps have not been very flexible.
So even at an initial claimed 10% savings maybe they saw as a reasonable risk to send a message.
What a rediculous thing to write back to me.
Are you telling us Hershey has a monopoly on chocolate? Heck fire, man, maybe I'll go global. Maybe I'll order my chocolate from the Swiss.
Oddly enough, in another thread, you and I would be facing off the barbarians together. I pretty much want the same thing.
But they can't have my Hershey bar. Whoops, they got it, don't they. Ah, guess I'll reach for Nestlé's next time. (They haven't moved to Mexico, have they?)
But Hershey? Oh lord, just think how many American G.I.s got lucky with the ladies during World War II just because they had a Hershey Bar in their pocket. Hershey. It ain't just chocolate. It is Americana! Now, it is Mexicana!
See ya in them other threads we was talking about. :-)
Hershey’s chocolate is grainy.
Hershey’s owns them (Scharffen Berger) too. Purchased in 2006.
Why should I care whether the US sugar industry survives?
Labor costs do not equal prevailing wage. If you have to hire 9 people at half the wage plus benefits, to do what 5 people used to do, then even if the wage is half, the labor cost is 90% of the original.
I don’t believe milk has been dumped by government edict for many years. About 40+ years ago, when attempts were being made to get dairy farmers into a type of “labor union,” or collective bargaining organization, farmer-activists voluntarily dumped their own milk, and sometimes that produced by their un-cooperative neighbors. My late brother, then a Wisconsin dairy farmer, was involved in that movement, although he didn’t dump his milk or anyone else’s; and I’ve been associated with dairy farmer relatives nearly all my life, since I was a teen-age Wisconsin farm hand.
Per the article, they need a new factory either way. The current one is considered outdated and inefficient - so they have to build a new one either way.
So the countdown to their ruination has started already?
see post 108....Maybe it’s changed?
Mexico isnt known as the cleanest place in the world. I dont want a Chocolate bar from there.”
Amen.
I have just seen the last of my Hershey bars and my chocolate milk, made with Hershey’s syrup.
Maybe if Hershey moved out of high-priced Kalifornia wo a state like Wyoming or something, they could stay in the USA.
Workmen’s Comp is one of the biggest reasons.
Now new legislation requires that ALL business give health insurance to all their employees.
Business cannot squeeze all these costs out of the consumer.
I have a friend who ran a machine shop in Kalifornia for over 50 years. He NEVER had a single workmen’s comp claim in all that time. They were charging him 43% on every $100 of gross wages for workmen’s comp. So- on an annual payroll gross of $100,000, it was costing him $43,000 dollars in workmen’s comp premium.
In addition to running the machine shop, he operates a school with 6 students at a time on a weekly rotation to teach skills to people who are NOT learning them in the taxpayer provided schools anymore. No shop classes, etc. The state of Kalifornia wanted him to pay workmen’s comp on the students!!!! He had a mess of a time convincing them that they were NOT employees and were students!!
He finally said to workmen’s comp that they would have to charge workmen’s comp for every student in the grade, high school, and college campus in the entire state- How about that???
He finally had enough and moved the entire operation to Tennessee. The MAXIMUM workmen’s comp rate in Tennessee is &%, and he is NOT at the maximum rate there.
So, now, Kalifornia lost the earnings of all his employees- who all went with him, BTW- and all the churning of those wages thruout the immediate area.
Another company left Van Nuys, near the VN airport for Las Vegas a few years back. Sold their land, building and built new in Las Vegas area. Took 235 of 250 employees with them, and paid for their moving costs. Moved all their machinery and teardown was Friday PM, and start up was the following Tuesday AM. Saved on state income taxes, got 47% of the previous electricity rates, and dropped workmen’s comp waaaaay down.
They recovered their costs in less than 9 months.
Sherwin-Williams near San Francisco has been reduced to making ONLY one kind of paint/varnish product. Water based latex paint. The enviros have shut them down on everything else. They have built a new plant- also more automated- in Fernley, Nev- east of Reno. They left behind union wages, union strikes, nasty enviros, and provided new jobs here for people happy to see them. I don’t know how long it will take for them to recover the costs of this move, but I don’t think it will be a long time.
San Francisco has voted that all business MUST provide sick leave- even to part-time workers who come and go, especially in the restaurant business. Food business not happy. Ripple effect will show itself within this year.
That is why everyone is leaving Kalifornia.
The state thinks they can run YOUR business better than you can do it, yet the state NEVER had a dime of envestment in the first place. Therefore, small business is fleeing Kalifornia left and right.
I actually prefer the Mexican bottled Coca Cola (in the old style green tinted bottles) we can get here in AZ because they use real cane sugar as opposed to that godawful high fructose corn syrup. Tastes like Coca Cola used to taste when I was a kid.
What are the sugar restrictions you are refering to?”
If you cannot drink the Mexican water—How can you drink the Coca Cola. Isn’t it made with the same water???
Good post, we took a long look around at our native home and loaded up and headed for Montana.
I’m sure gonna miss my Hershey’s with Almonds.
There not going to stop making them. One factory is going down south. Probably have less Mexicans in Mexico than Oakland as far as the company is concerned.
First of all, I think there were only 2 factories for Hershey’s. The one in Pennsylvania is also closing or already has.
Secondly- the Hershey’s they are referring to here is in PAKDALE—Not Oakland. Oakdale is a few miles South and East of Sacramento, Calif. In the Sierra foothills, and is a very small town, which many of the townsfolk worked there. Good place to get kids into the workplace out of high school, etc.
Don’t know how many Mexicans there are in Oakdale, tho. Some, I am sure.
The Maximum workmen’s comp rate in Tennessee is 7 %.
My typos get worse when I am agitated about a topic...sorry all.
PAKDALE
OAKDALE
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.