Hershey Plans to Cut Work Force by 1,500 (union jobs to Mexico)

[Omaha Steve]

http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?cat=TOPBIZ&feed=ap&src=601§ion=news&news_id=ap-d8naesuo0&date=20070215&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw

Hershey Plans to Cut Work Force by 1,500

Thursday February 15, 6:35 PM EST

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Hershey Co., whose name has been synonymous with U.S. candymaking for more than a century, is moving a bigger chunk of its production to Mexico. A day after Valentine sweethearts across the country enjoyed bags of Hershey Kisses, the company on Thursday announced a restructuring plan that will scale back its work force by 1,500 jobs and force some plants to close.

Hershey said the three-year blueprint would reduce the number of production lines by more than one-third while saving the company as much as $190 million a year.

The maker of Hershey's Kisses, Reese's peanut butter cups and Mounds bars currently employs about 13,000 people at 20 plants in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The planned cuts amount to 11.5 percent of that work force.

The proportion of Hershey's manufacturing done in the U.S. and Canada will shrink, from 90 percent currently to 80 percent, and the impact will vary from one plant to another.

FULL story at link.

[butterfly77]

1. I don't know what it will take for many to realize that this is not ...

a good economy...and the media will not report it I have never seen this many firings and closing in my life. If this was a democratic administration they would be screaming it from the roofs...

[barb162]

11. This is a terrible economy for the American worker

The Democratic Congress seems to be unaware of it so far. They just put through a bill allowing more foreign workers here

[otherlander]

17. "foreign workers"

Is pretty much a synonym for rival. We have to stop letting them play us against each other like this. It's killing us.

[Deja Q]

2. Sad. But don't expect prices to drop any time soon...

Wasn't the promise of lower prices one of the original reasons FOR offshorinhg? (I could be wrong...)

[Sequoia]

3. Mr. Hershey's gonna turn over in his grave.

TRATIORS!!!!!

Maybe we should learn Spanish and immigate to Mexico since all the jobs are there. Mexico is hot and that chocolate's going to melt. Guess they'll pay the workers $1 and hour.

Hershey's chocolate is grainy anyway, Farmer chocoalte is what the old timers used to call it. Why? Because it was so simple to make with the basest of ingredients. Unlike the smoother chocolate such as Cadbury, or the Swiss made kind.

[Fierce]

4. "Saving".

Ah-hmmmmm. Fuck you, Hershey.

[niyad]

5. and people wonder why I have not eaten a hershey candy in many years--apart from the fact that

american chocolates taste like plastic.

[pinniped]

6. European chocolate IS better IMO.

.

[KurtNYC]

31. Anything is better than Hershey chalk-olate IMO

I'm not sure that a Hershey Kiss qualifies as chocolate.

Not even close to Lindt, Valrhona or Chocovic.

[ohio2007]

7. How long til those jobs in Mexico get siphoned off to China?

Mexicans are irritated at losing non skilled jobs to Chinese sweat shops, how long til the "sweet" shops will be targeted ?

[Peace Patriot]

8. Time to shut these fuckers down--pull their corporate charters and seize their

assets for the common good.

If they outsource jobs, they don't do business here. End of story.


--------------------------------

The way to make this happen? This is how they've done it in South America*:

1. TRANSPARENT vote counting.
2. Grass roots organization.
3. Think big.

------------------

*(South American countries don't want the crappy sweatshop jobs that U.S. corporations are sending there, nor will they put up any longer with U.S. corporations stealing all their resources and destroying their economies and social justice. They are tossing the global corporate predators, and their World Bank/IMF shills, out, in one country after another. They want control of their own resources and businesses. They want self-determination. The corporate line that the jobs they outsource from this country benefit third world countries is a load of crap. The common enemy is global corporate predators who pit one country's work force against another, in a mutual downward spiral. The third world is onto this. We are not--or rather, we don't have sufficient political representation acting in our interests to bring this downward spiral to a halt, here and now. See 1, 2 and 3 above.)

[BadgerKid]

16. On self-determination

(South American countries don't want the crappy sweatshop jobs that U.S. corporations are sending there, nor will they put up any longer with U.S. corporations stealing all their resources and destroying their economies and social justice. They are tossing the global corporate predators, and their World Bank/IMF shills, out, in one country after another. They want control of their own resources and businesses. They want self-determination.

Not entirely unlike how America saw itself over 200 years ago. Maybe some of these other countries will figure a way to make it last.

[MGD]

26. Fuckin' A to that. Go peddle your candy to the third world Hershey's. You're fucking fired buddy!

[madrchsod]

9. cheaper sugar and no medical /pension problems

is`t it time for universal medical coverage?

[VegasWolf]

10. Isn't NAFTA wonderful? nt

[brentspeak]

12. Completely opposite to everything Milton Hershey was about

This was a guy who created a chocolate company not to get rich, but (get this) to provide meaningful employment for the people in Pennsylvania!

But he's long gone, and now all that's left are bottom-feeding CEOs and their executives.

[Turn CO Blue]

13. And how will people with no jobs buy their chocolate?

The reasoning behind these decisions is always so frickin' greedy. Every decision is about the almighty buck for the shareholders instead of about what it should be -- building a grand company with a great product and a fun, productive atmosphere for the employees.

No more Reese's I guess. As stated above, I much prefer gourmet chocolate imported from Europe when I'm getting my dark chocolate freak on.

[tabasco]

14. Plenty of jobs at Mickey D's and car detailers.

What are these people going to do? How many have to fall out of the comfort of their middle class existence before others realize they will be next? It seems so many don't pay attention until something affects them directly. So many people don't even bother to vote. This is what apathy and corporate control will do to an economy. Turn us all into serfs.

[Tbobby]

15. Could this be a result of the minimum wage hike?

Businesses have more of an incentive to move operations and/or
automate.

[hatrack]

19. Nice try - would you like to guess again?

:eyes:

[MGD]

27. Union jobs don't tend to be minimum wage and Hershey has been outsourcing jobs and insourcing labor

for years now. No fuckin' way this has anything to do with the minimum wage hike.

[brentspeak]

28. Uh, no

No, this is not the result of the minimum wage hike, as most Hershey employees have long made well over minimum wage or are otherwise salaried.

[Yavin4]

34. What Min. Wage Hike?

What hike where?

[Nevernose]

18. Here's the REAL crime:

Hershey's stock rose 1.6 percent Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, to close at $52.10, up 80 cents.

It's also who's responsible.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

20. I'll tell everyone I know not to buy their shit.

I'll tell them to buy the Pound Plus Belgian Chocolate bars from Trader Joe's. Those are WAY better anyway.

[crikkett]

21. Dammit now I have to boycott another chocolate company

since Mars Co uses cocoa harvested by slave labor. Seems like the only guilt-free chocolate can be bought at trader joe's or whole foods.

[NuttyFluffers]

22. that's horrible. the Hershey family used to reinvest heavily in their people.

those poor people. i hope they get new jobs soon and can recover. i find it strange that Hershey is now doing this. they used to be a model company in reinvestiture of the community that labors for it. i wonder if this is new management ills, the general poison that is lately pervading the nation, or if they were backed into a wall by NAFTA, Nestle, etc. i would like to know more info as to the deep seated reasons for this change from its traditional company behavior.

[TheWatcher]

23. Robust Economy.

[Doondoo]

24. Voodoo economics at its finest

[mitchleary]

25. Those b@stards

Another candy bar co I will have to boycott. Oh well Ritter Sport and other Euro chocolates are better anyway.

[mr_hellcat]

29. Want To Help?

Even during the Great Depression, instead of laying off workers, founder Milton Hershey instead found building projects to put people to work at. We think the new era of Hershey businessmen and businesswomen should honor their founder's legacy and continue to invest on the company's greatest resources - its people.

Want to help? Send a letter to CEO Richard Lenny or sign the petition at http://kissesforhershey.blogspot.com

For every person who signs the petition, we'll send a Hershey's Kiss to the Hershey CEO, asking him to reconsider his layoff plans.

[Broken_Hero]

30. Welcome to DU :)

:hi:

[Joe Bacon]

32. Ghiradelli's tastes a lot better than Hershey's

Heck, even as a kid, I preferred Nestle's! I can still remember how good Rowntree Kit Kat Bars and REAL Reese's Peanut Butter cups tasted before Hershey bought the licenses to make them. Even now, REAL British Kit Kat bars tase a lot better than Hershey's counterfeits!

[DainBramaged]

33. $190 million a year says it all

I am sure the stockholders will be cheering as pictures of the workers getting their pink slips are played to them from the "security" cameras.


Well, I stopped eating Mars candy, time to stop eating Hershey's. I guess Cadbury is safe for now.:mad:

[Yavin4]

35. The Economy Is Doing Exceptionally Well

for those with highly valued assets, like property, stock portfolios, dividends, etc.

For the rest of Americans, the ease and over abundance of cheap debt ameliorate the effects of mass layoffs. Most Americans borrow their way into the middle class, not earn it. Student loans, mortgages, car leases, and credit cards are the staples of the American middle class, not well-paying jobs with benefits.

We are a nation of owners, debtors, working poor, and the non-working poor, with the last three groups growing the fastest. There is no middle class any more. This arrangement will hold as long as debt is relatively cheap.