More than 1,000 Hershey's workers vote on plan to unionize Virginia plant

[turbinetree]

Source: The Guardian

Michael Sainato
Wed 23 Feb 2022 06.00 EST

Around 1,300 workers at a Hershey’s candy manufacturing plant in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, are voting on whether to unionize, in a move organizers say is led by older workers seeking to ensure good benefits for newer employees.

The ballots for the mail-in election to join the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union will be sent to workers on 24 February, with results to be counted on 24 March.

The Hershey Company is publicly opposing the effort, encouraging workers to vote against it and hiring the union-busting Labor Relations Institute to hold captive audience meetings with workers. The LRI has also created an anti-union website ahead of the election, and reportedly made “union-free” lawn signs to distribute throughout the community. Workers at two of seven Hershey plants in the US are currently represented by unions.


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/23/hersheys-union-vote-virginia

[agingdem]

1. Sweet...(sorry, couldn't resist)

[DownriverDem]

2. You can bet

this is why Hershey has a plant in Virginia.

[RainCaster]

3. Better productivity means... T-shirts!

Yes, we will reward you with a damn t-shirt while the management gets bonuses.

[KPN]

5. Lol. Right? They already do that with performance awards in some cases.

[Hotler]

10. And pizza for lunch just to show how much we really appreciate you. nt

[KPN]

4. Those workers in the captive audience meeting need to be asked by each other preferably, "Why is

Hershey Company trying to persuade us to vote against unionization?" As a young federal employee years ago when Reagan set up and rolled out the newer federal retirement system and a campaign to sell it to existing employees, the more senior employees in my workplace kept saying "Now why would they be trying to get us/you to give up your existing Civil Service Retirement System plan and move into this new Federal Employees Retirement System> Is it better for you, or better for them?" It worked. Of the 60 or so employees in my office, not a single person opted for the new system.

Of course, we had stronger job protections than most privately employed workers have. Hershey's could always decide to downsize its workforce in the face of unionization. At some point, America's workers need to ban and stand together if they ever hope to get equitable pay and benefits for all -- not just CEOs and managers.

[ificandream]

6. AMEN!!!!

[The Jungle 1]

7. Chocolate is produced with slave child labor!!

We should not be eating chocolate at all. Hershey has promised for years to fix its supply chain. Nothing has changed. They don't care that child slave labor is used. Cocoa farmers in West Africa, source of around 70% of the world's cocoa, engage in human trafficking and child labor, including child slavery. This is a FACT. According the Global Slavery Index 2018 thousands of children today are trafficked and forced to work on cocoa farms.

Hershey is a filthy lying company! As are the rest of the chocolate producers.

[Duppers]

8. TY for this info.

I had forgotten about this.

So, there's no humanitarian sources of chocolate?

Just as there are practically no humanitarian sources of palm oil.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/10/palm-oil-orangutans-multinationals-promises-deforestation

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212038701


I eat much less chocolate than I did 20yrs ago but often still crave it.

Yes, people are hurting and often destroying our environment in so many ways.

[The Jungle 1]

9. Good site to help you find ethically sourced chocolate.

https://www.greenamerica.org/end-child-labor-cocoa/chocolate-scorecard#:~:text=Chocolate%20bars%20with%20an%20%22A,their%20supply%20chain%20by%202020.

Godiva is the worst producer. The had all committed to 2020 as the date of 100% ethically produced chocolate.
This is at least 2 year old information.

[Duppers]

11. Thanks!

Good info there.