Well the top management of Hershey Company has spoken, it just took them 2 weeks to speak all of the words.

The week of March 25 they announced at the two Hershey plants that they anticipated that they would eliminate about 650 jobs that are union jobs. On Friday, they announced an addition 250 to 300 job cuts at the H.B. Reese plant (Peanut Butter Cups) which is non-union.

The company tried to soften this by saying they would offer early retirement and severance packages but the sheer number is probably 40% of the manufacturing positions at the three operations.

The "old" plant at 5 East Chocolate Avenue makes the traditional Hershey products - candy bars and kisses. The east plant actually produces the bulk of the chocolate "paste" that is the basis for most candy products. The Reese's plant manufactures the famous Peanut Butter cups.

Then, in a move that can only be described as "spin", a local economics professor penned an op-ed piece for the largest local newspaper, the Harrisburg Patriot News, that opined that the real purpose of a corporation was to increase value to the owners and that this was good for the local economy.

Most of this is supposed to happen over the next two years and the local politicos have been strangely silent ever since the first announcement. It will be an interesting 24 to 36 months locally as the company tries to trim jobs and maintain some kind of loyalty from the local population.