The members of Chocolate Workers Local 464, affiliate of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International, have been on strike at two of the company’s plants here since April 26, making it the longest strike in the 108-year history of the company. In addition to joining the chocolate workers’ picket lines, AFSCME members brought bags filled with lunch for pickets outside the two struck plants.

When company founder Milton Hershey opened his candy factory in 1894, he also set up a company town. "Residents bought their homes from Hershey and mortgaged them through his bank," one local newspaper reported. "He owned the lumber mill, the water company, the electric company, the telephone company--virtually every service they used."

The strike was provoked by company demands for a 100 percent increase in worker payments for health care and other takebacks. Retirees, as well as salaried workers and employees at a number of Hershey’s nonunion plants have already had a similar health-care payment increase imposed on them by the bosses.

Many workers on the picket line explained the importance of health care for themselves and workers all over the country. A number of them are afflicted with tendenitis and carpal tunnel syndrome for repetitive motion on their jobs. The largest job category in the Chocolate Avenue plant is for the workers who package the candy bars as they come off the line. One striker explained that on her line they pack 138 Hershey bars a minute.

"It’s just a rolling trend with industries," striker John Stickler said. "They just want their employees to keep paying more for their benefits, and as long as they keep making more money and we go along with it, they’re going to do it. Somebody has to put their foot down and just say no."

Last year Hershey hired as their new CEO Richard Lenny, a corporate cutback artist who made his reputation boosting profits at the workers’ expense at Kraft foods. Lenny worked with other managers to demand concessions from workers at Hershey in order to boost company profit rates. For his efforts, Lenny earned $22 million last year in pay, stock options, and bonuses.

In the first quarter of 2002, Hershey posted an $87 million profit.

"The strike has been a long time coming. They have been coming after us little by little, but they decided to take one big whack with the final ax by hiring Lenny," striker Terence Colbert told the Militant. "They didn’t think we would have the guts to go out on strike."

The Harrisburg Patriot-News, the daily paper in the nearby state capital, cited company statistics to show that to drop their cutback demands and leave health-care costs as they were in the last contract would cost the firm’s investors a half-cent per company stock share. To drop the health-care costs back to this level for all 14,000 of the company’s workers around the world, union and nonunion alike, would cost two cents per share.

Last week the company sent out a four-page letter to the 2,700 strikers, attacking the union leadership, hoping to divide and conquer. Claiming that the company has gotten "calls" from workers asking to go back to work, the bosses threatened the strikers. "You must understand that we have an obligation to our customers, shareholders, and other employees to meet the demand for our products," the letter said.

In the face of the company’s attacks, spirits remain high on the picket line. The union has not issued any printed picket signs so strikers have made placards of their own. Many lampoon CEO Lenny. One is a piece of cardboard with a white dress shirt buttoned over it, complete with a business tie, and a picture of Lenny pasted on top. Others are drawings of Hershey Kisses with suggestions for what part of strikers’ anatomy they can be placed on.

Drivers of cars and trucks going by on the busy main street--the downtown plant is located at the corner of Chocolate and Cocoa streets--honk, wave, and give the thumbs up sign. Strikers yell back and wave.

There are a number of Internet web sites organized by strikers and the union, including one with pictures of pickets put up by a retiree, and another run by the international union.

One site organized by the local is full of contributions from strikers about meeting the challenge of keeping the 23 picket locations covered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the best ways to answer company lies.

"The people are in very good spirits and the strike is together," stated Terence Colbert. "It has brought the union up to a new level with one purpose. I haven’t heard of anyone losing faith or breaking down. We have to take a stand now or we will lose our basic rights."

John Studer is a garment worker in Philadelphia, and a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 15.  
 
 
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