Email flyers urge boycott of Hershey Co., which has lately announced worker layoffs in U.S. plants while outsourcing jobs to new facilities in Mexico.
Description: Email flyers
Circulating since: May 2007
Status: Mostly true
Example #1:
Email contributed by Carol S., July 12, 2007:
Subject: Another company outsourcing
: Hershey going overseas.....!!!!!!!!!!!!
A letter from one of the employees family member.
A sad story for those of us who remember growing up with Hershey bars, and just as sad for the generations of today. What will be outsourced next?
Pennsylvania is a big state, but it amazes me in this day, how some news doesn't make it over the mountain to the front page of our papers or the top of our news hours in Western Pennsylvania.
Some of you may not know that Vicki's dad makes Hershey's Kisses for a living, so this hits home for us. Milton Hershey, this year, will be joining H. J Heinz in rolling over in his grave. Hershey Chocolate is moving to Mexico...whoopee! They're even closing down Hershey Canada. Don't buy any more Hercia Bars. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are my favorite and they are made by Hershey. But, I will not purchase another one!
M.S. Hershey had a dream... I will buy my OWN Sugar, Milk, Cocoa beans, (all natural mind you!) and make candy... (no tariffs etc..) EVEN during the depression...HE and the Company made money...NOW some Corporate big wigs are ruining the name.. AND the product M.S. created... Please pass it on...What a bunch of college educated "idiots".
Thank you M.S. for all the things I have and all you have done for me and my family..."I" do appreciate it... as for "Dick" Lenny and Company...good luck you greedy, money loving mongrels...you are ruining the name, the company, and MANY lives in centeral Pennsylvania.... read on... Enough is Enough!
So Hershey executives are closing plants in the US , laying off over a thousand people, and destroying Mr. Hershey's dream, all to cut labor and material costs. The company will save about $170 million a year, all on the backs of the American people. The top executives will still make their mega bucks and the laid off workers will have to find other jobs, some probably at minimum wage due to their age. All this to take their jobs to India, China and Mexico, So WHAT part of the "GREAT" American Chocolate Bar is left?...NOTHING! These countries are no doubt laughing at the Americans, who they don't like anyway. How long are the American people going to sit around and let big corporations do this to us? We must all band together and let them know we won't take it any longer!
Please, do not buy any Hershey product! I pulled EVERY dime of my stock, retirement and my HEART out of Hershey... (it does hurt me to say that). If the company wants to take the work to these countries, then let those countries buy the product. We don't need it!
BLACKBALL HERSHEY!!
Please pass this to everyone on your email list so it gets all across the United States.
Example #2:
Email contributed by Brandy P., May 4, 2007:
Subject: Blackball Hershey Chocolate !!!!
Enough is Enough!
So Hershey executives are closing plants in the US, laying off hundreds of people, and destroying Mr. Hershey's dream, all to cut labor and material costs. The company will save about $170 million a year, all on the backs of the American people. The top executives will still make their mega bucks and the laid off workers will have to find other jobs, some probably at minimum wage due to their age. All this to take their jobs to India, China and Mexico. These countries are no doubt laughing at the Americans, who they don't like anyway.
How long are the American people going to sit around and let big corporations do this to us?
We must all stand together and let them know we won't take it any longer!
Please, do not buy any Hershey product!
If the company wants to take the work to these countries, then let those countries buy the product. We don't need it!
Blackball Hershey
Blackball Hershey
Blackball HersheyPlease pass this to everyone on your email list so it gets all across the United States. Show big corporations we are United!!!!
Analysis: The Hershey Company, the U.S. chocolate manufacturer based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, announced in February 2007 that it would cut 1,500 jobs (an estimate later doubled to 3,000 jobs) over a period of three years as part of a restructuring plan involving the closing of some plants in the U.S. and Canada, the outsourcing of certain products, and the construction of a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico. The company projects that by 2010 only 80 percent of its production will take place in North America, down from the current 94 percent. Expected cost savings are between $170 million and $190 million over the three years (not per year, as claimed in the boycott emails).
While the reality falls well short of the dramatic plaint that "Hershey Chocolate is moving to Mexico," it does represent an economic blow to the workers who are being laid off and the communities where plants are closing. And whether one attributes the restructuring to unbridled corporate greed or the harsh realities of doing business in a global economy, it is a far cry indeed from the ethos established by company founder Milton S. Hershey, who "believed that his company and the community were intertwined," as one biography puts it, and essentially created Hershey, Pennsylvania from scratch as a "model town, with nice homes, parks, transportation, and recreational facilities" for all of his employees to enjoy. Hershey died in 1945.
On October 1, 2007 current Hershey CEO Richard Lenny announced his decision to retire by the end of the year.
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Sources and further reading:
Hershey Announces Plant Closing, Job Cuts
Manufacturing.net, 24 April 2007Candy Maker Hershey to Cut Jobs, Send Some Manufacturing to Mexico
Associated Press, 15 February 2007Hershey Plan Targets Supply Chain Efficiencies
FoodProductionDaily.com, 19 February 2007Milton Snavely Hershey
NetState.comHershey CEO Richard Lenny to Step Down
Wall Street Journal, 2 October 2007
Last updated: 10/02/07
