Hershey is closing its last Canadian candy factory in Dartmouth, N.S., laying off 580 workers and moving part of the production to the United States and Mexico.
Employee Jackie Norman told CTV that some workers weren't surprised, as rumours of the imminent closure had been circulating for months.
Still, the news hit hard when it came.
"It's upset a lot of people," she said.
Nancy MacDonald, another worker, said "a lot of us employees are unhappy, we're scared, we don't know how it's going to affect our lives."
Ken Drake, a union shop steward, said those workers who have spent a lifetime working at the facility "the hardest part is going to be the re-adjusting."
Apparently government money was unsuccessful in keeping the plant:
In 2003, Hershey received a four-year payroll rebate from the Nova Scotia government following a $20-million expansion of the Dartmouth plant.
Under the deal, the company would receive $750,000 in tax rebates if it created and maintained 100 new jobs in that period. It also received $480,000 term loan from the province to purchase land for the expansion.
It wasn't immediately known how those deals are affected by the closure.
This is a bright spot .... maybe there is room for an independent facility !!"We're moving to a more cost-effective model that increases our use of manufacturing partners in Canada," he said. (Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville ... i'm really starting to not like that guy !)
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