Hershey Hires Lobbyists to Avoid Labor Rights Scrutiny

Amid growing scrutiny of Hershey's labor rights abuses, from its cocoa beans to its packing facility in Pennsylvania, the company has hired additional lobbyists to deflect attention from its exploitation of workers. Hershey recently hired the services of Bank Rome Government Relations to advocate for the company on "government affairs issues related to labor practices." Unfortunately for Hershey, no amount of money thrown to lobbyists will end its connection the abuse of student guestworkers or child, forced and trafficked labor in its cocoa supply chain -- only changing its policies will solve these problems.

Last month, it was revealed that student guestworkers who came to the US on J-1 visas found themselves working long hours in poor conditions for paltry wages in a Hershey packing facility in Pennsylvania. The students staged a walk out, organized massive protests in Hershey and took their message across the country, even receiving support from labor rights advocates around the world. Almost 70,000 Change.org readers have joined the campaign calling for justice for guestworkers and for living wage jobs for Pennsylvania residents. Meanwhile, Hershey has hidden behind multiple layers of subcontractors and remained silent about its connection to the exploitation of these students.

This week marked the ten year anniversary of a commitment Hershey signed to end abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking in its cocoa supply chain in West Africa. A decade later, 1.8 million children continue to work on cocoa farms in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Hershey has lag behind all other major chocolate companies in committing to source cocoa that has been independently certified to comply with international labor rights standards. That is why over 15,500 Change.org readers have joined the International Labor Rights Forum in calling on Hershey to "raise the bar" for responsible cocoa sourcing.

Instead of directly addressing its connection to egregious labor rights violations in its global supply chain, Hershey has chosen to spend its resources on hiring lobbyists to quell increasing demands that the company do the right thing for workers. Blank Rome Government Relations has reported to the US Senate that it is now lobbying on behalf of Hershey on labor issues. According to the disclosure documents, Ashley Davis and Abigail Goldstein will be representing the company in meetings with legislators. Davis has worked closely with the George W. Bush Administration and served as a Special Assistant to Tom Ridge when he was Director of Homeland Security. Interestingly, Ridge is also a current member of Hershey's Board of Directors.

Of course, lobbying is nothing new to Hershey. The company also employs Ronald Graf as Vice President of Government Relations. Graf, with assistance from Eileen Harley, lobby for Hershey on a range of issues including labor standards in supply chains. Harley went directly from working in the House Rules Committee from 2001 to 2007 to lobbying for a food industry front group followed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association before she began lobbying for Hershey. The company has already spent over $300,000 for lobbying just on its two official employees in the first half of this year.

Hershey's increased spending and reliance on lobbying demonstrates clearly that we're starting to have an effect on the company. It clearly is starting to feel the backlash from its declining respect for workers throughout its supply chain. Now, we need to build the pressure on Hershey to channel its energy and resources to supporting the best kind of public relations: actually respect workers. The best way to improve its reputation for poor labor rights policies is to "raise the bar" for workers from bean to bar. Concerned consumers certainly won't be swayed by anything less.

You can increase the pressure on Hershey by signing both the petition to support student guestworkers and cocoa growing communities producing for Hershey. After you sign both petitions, ask your friends and family to join you and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo credit: entheos