I ask you: Who will be left to buy chocolate once America is left with but service and IT jobs?

Protest planned at Chocolate Festival Former employee speaks out on closing of Oakdale plant

A special report: The Oakdale Hershey plant

By CHRISTINA SALERNO [email protected]

Last Updated: May 17, 2007, 04:10:04 AM PDT

A former Hershey worker is organizing a protest at the Oakdale Chocolate Festival to bring attention to jobs leaving the United States. John Wood worked as a maintenance supervisor for 15 years at the Oakdale Hershey plant, where he planned to retire.

In February, the company announced a restructuring plan that would lay off thousands of U.S. and Canadian workers while moving jobs to a plant in Mexico.

Wood said that's when he began searching for a new job because he saw the writing on the wall. Hershey announced last month that it will close the Oakdale chocolate factory, laying off 575 employees.

Wood left Hershey three weeks ago.

"Hershey is another big business that is leaving American workers jobless," he said. "It woke me up."

Wood said he is expecting at least 50 to 100 people to join him in the protest.

The group will meet at 9 a.m. Saturday at Cottles Woods Park, at the corner of East J Street and Ventanas Avenue in Oakdale.

Wood said the protesters will march to the gates of the Oakdale Chocolate Festival, at the intersection of F Street and South Yosemite, where they will stay until noon.

"I felt that that's a big day for Hershey's chocolate and I felt it would be a good setting for what we are talking about," Wood said. "Here we are celebrating a chocolate festival, yet 600 people are out on the streets."

Oakdale City Manager Steve Hallam said Wood notified the Police Department and city officials about his plans for a demonstration.

Hallam said he is expecting it to be a peaceful demonstration on public property. The city will have the same level of additional security as it does every year for the festival, he said.

Mary Guardiola of the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce said she is not concerned that the protest will affect the festival's expected attendance of 65,000 to 75,000 people. The festival will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

"They are not protesting the festival," Guardiola said, adding, "I'd like them to have a different venue."

This year's festival has a 1950s-theme, "Cruising for Chocolate." Hershey is one of the festival's primary sponsors, though nearly 20 chocolate vendors will be at the event.

It is not the first protest that has been organized against Hershey in the wake of the company's restructuring efforts.

Two days after Hershey announced it was closing a chocolate factory in the Canadian town of Smith Falls, Ontario, about 500 people there rallied outside the plant to ask the candy maker to reconsider its decision.

In March, more than 400 residents turned out in the town of Hershey, Pa., to voice their displeasure with Hershey.

Bee staff writer Christina Salerno can be reached at [email protected] or 238-4574.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/13589239p-14188616c.html