Nearly 3,000 Hershey workers strike

Posted 8:36AM on Saturday 27th April 2002 ( 23 years ago )

HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA - In a boisterous show of solidarity, nearly 3,000 Hershey Foods Corp. workers walked off the job at two factories Friday, upset with a company offer that would increase their health insurance contributions. Strikers lined both sides of Chocolate Avenue, the main street where one of the plants is located, with signs saying ``Stop the Greed, Share the Wealth.'' Union members set up an inflatable giant rat and hung a sign on it referring to Hershey chief executive Richard Lenny. The strike affects about one-fifth of the work force at the nation's largest candymaker, but company officials said it would not interrupt service to its customers. Hershey Foods has been building inventory and cash reserves in preparation for a walkout, analysts said. ``We feel like there's too much greed at the top and they're not sharing with the rest of us,'' said Kay Barr, a worker who helps produce the company's Rolo candies. There were no plans to bring in replacement workers, Hershey Foods spokeswoman Christine Dugan said. The two plants make a variety of candy, including chocolate bars, Hershey's Kisses and chocolate eggs. Many of those products are also made at the company's 12 other plants in the United States, including a third, nonunion plant in Hershey, Dugan said. ``We have appropriate plans in place to make sure we can continue to meet our customers' expectations,'' Dugan said. A deal offered by the company but rejected earlier this month called for worker health insurance contributions to increase from 6 percent to 10 percent, then 12 percent over four years. Workers, who receive an average hourly wage of about $18, would get raises of 2.78 percent in the first year, 2.6 percent in the second, 2.65 percent in the third and 2.75 percent in the fourth year. Hershey last week reported a 10.3 percent increase in its first-quarter earnings over the same period last year, for a profit of 67 cents a share, slightly better than the consensus forecast of 66 cents a share by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. ``This company's making money hand over fist and there's no reason it can't be shared,'' said Frankleen Gibson, who tends air-conditioning units in the Chocolate Avenue plant. ``We're ready and we're going to stand tough. We're not going back in a week or two.'' Workers said they also objected to the company's refusal to grant their pay increase retroactively to when the previous contract expired in November. Negotiations between Hershey and the Chocolate Workers Local 464 broke off Wednesday. No new talks were scheduled. The company offered to enter into binding arbitration Wednesday but the union refused, both sides said. The labor stoppage at Hershey is the fifth in the 97-year-old candy maker's history. The last strike was a three-week work stoppage by Local 464 members in 1980, union officials said. However, Hershey has taken pains to prepare well for a strike at the two plants, which combined account for about $2 million a day in sales, said analyst George Askew of Legg Mason. Askew said the company has grown inventories by at least $30 million more than it needs for this time of year and has a cash balance of about $220 million on hand. ``They're clearly saving money for this rainy day,'' he said. ``I wouldn't expect any product interruption in the first month of the strike,'' Askew said. ``After that, it's less clear.''

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/195426