Timeline

2001 – Acknowledge of abusive child labor worldwide; pressured chocolate manufacturers including Hershey to use 100% certified cocoa supplies. 

2010 –Raise The Bar, Hershey! Campaign. 1 st Raise The Bar Report released.

2011 – 2nd Raise The Bar Report released. 

2012 – A Lawsuit: Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System v. Hershey Co.

Dating back to 2001, illegal labor practices in West Africa on cocoa farms were publicized regarding issues of abusive child labor, child trafficking, and forced labor. Consumers were shocked. Chocolate companies like Hershey agreed to commit to end these labor abuses. About almost a decade after, Hershey, who has 42.5% of the market share in the United States did not take any actions to prevent child labor problems from its supply chains.  “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” campaign was launched in 2010. In September 2010, the first report, Time to Raise the Bar: The REAL Corporate Social Responsibility Report for the Hershey Company, was released by Global Exchange, Green America, and The International Labor rights Forum in seeking Hershey to take immediate action.  Regardless of consumers’ call asking Hershey to take actions, Hershey failed to address the issue. September 2011, a second report was released, wanting Hershey to commit to track down their suppliers and use 100% fair trade certified cocoa for all products by 2020. Compared to other competitors, Hershey is seriously lagging and falling behind in taking measurable steps. The report gave Hershey’s a “thumb down” for its commitment to responsibly certified coca since 2010 (figure 1).  As shown in figure 2, Hershey does not have policies, monitoring programs, certified cocoa procurement, or disclosure performance in place to ensure that cocoa is not produced with forced/child labor or trafficking problems.

According to the report, Hershey’s has refused to identify its cocoa suppliers since 2010. Without transparency in its sourcing, Hershey is suspicious to the public by making it impossible to verify its sources. Hershey tried to prove their effort in social responsibility by pointing to their charitable programs to children in the US and West Africa. However, it did not ensure those suppliers as child labor free.  Despite of the campaign and reports again Hershey, Hershey did not implement any new initiatives. Although Hershey acquired Dagoba brand, which some of its products are fair trade certified. Nevertheless, that is less than 1% of all Hershey products. In its own Corporate Social Responsibility Report, Hershey announced a program, CocoaLink, with collaboration with Ghana Cocoa Board and the World Cocoa Foundation. It aims to reach cocoa farmers to help and educate them regarding farming techniques through mobile texting, which enables farmers to provide feedback and ask questions. However, this does not ensure that child labor issues will be eliminated from the supply chain. Moreover, Hershey also hides its financial contribution to its programs to the public. Throughout the years, Hershey continues to fail to meet its commitment to end child labor issues while its competitors are committee to purchase certified cocoa.

More and more consumers are aware of Hershey’s lack of actions.  There’s also a documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate, that revealed the child labor in the cocoa industry in West Africa. Thousands of signed petitions were sent to Hershey. Still, Hershey remained quite. This concerns its consumers and shareholders. On November 1, 2012, Represented by a Hershey Company’s shareholder and corporate governance law firm Grant & Eisenhofer, the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System (LAMPERS) filed a complaint (Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System v. Hershey Co., CA7996, Delaware Chancery Court) in Wilmington, Delaware.  LAMPERS wants a court order to disclose Hershey’s corporate records for shareholder inspection, claiming that the company uses ingredients from West African suppliers, who practice illegal child or forced labors when Hershey is aware of the illegal practices in its supply chains in the cocoa industries in West Africa coast, especially in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Moreover, controlling 42% of the market shares of chocolate products in the United States, the Hershey Co. undertook to ignore the issue and continue to use cocoa supplies from those areas in West Africa with abusive child labor practices. On the other side, Hershey spokesperson responded in an e-mail statement that the company’s been supporting cocoa growing and sustainability for more than 50 years by committing to source 100% third-party certified cocoa by 2020.

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Figure 1:

Source: Still Time to Raise the Bar: The REAL Corporate Social Responsibility Report for the Hershey Company 2011

Figure 2:

Source: Still Time to Raise the Bar: The REAL Corporate Social Responsibility Report for the Hershey Company 2011

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References:

Askew, Katy. “US: Hershey Under Fire Over Child Labour Allegations.” just – food global news Nov 02 2012. ProQuest. Web. 24 Apr. 2013 .

Milford, Phil, Dawn McCarty and Steven Church. Hershey Investor Sues for Records on African Child Labor. 1 November 2012. 24 April 2013.

Newman, Tim and Elizabeth O’Connell. Time to Raise the Bar 2011 Edition. September 2011. 24 April 2013 <www.RaiseTheBarHershey.org>.

Hershey’s 2012 CSR Scorecard