George, Tom, Jim, and Bob Miller discussed the sweet, bittersweet, and not-so-sweet moments from what they deemed a “sweet ride” at Hershey Chocolate Co. in this LebTown-exclusive interview.
Read More: Between Hershey and Wilbur: A look at the chocolate industry in Lebanon County
The Miller brothers’ early days
The Miller brothers were raised on North 5th Street in Lebanon. They attended St. Mary’s School and, later, Lebanon Catholic School before starting their careers at Hershey Chocolate Co., where they worked for a collective 167 years.
“At that time, when you graduated, if you didn’t go to college, you could get a job,” George Miller said. “Lebanon was different then. I mean, there’s all kinds of jobs available. It’s not like it is now.”
George said that in the 1970s, you could get your family members, or as Bob added, people who you knew were good workers, a job offer at Hershey Chocolate Co. There was a similar practice at other businesses in the area at that time.
“In those days, it was sort of a family thing. You could get your family in those places,” George said.
He said the times have changed, citing Hershey’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion policies that have modernized hiring practices, and said that politics are now involved to get a job.
“Plus, the jobs aren’t readily available like back then,” he said.
Jim said he took pride in his job at Hershey because his brother got him a job offer. He said their bosses would agree that they were some of the best workers they ever had, and that he met many people who said that Tom Miller was the best boss they ever had. He feels that this connection has been lost in the new hiring practices.
The Miller brothers shared their sweet impressions of the Hershey Chocolate Co. prior to and at the start of their employment at the company.
“You live here your whole life,” Jim said, “And when you were a kid and stuff, all you knew Hershey was, you smelled the chocolate, your mom and dad took you to the park, you know, and it was, like I said, when you get out of school, and you got in there, you thought, ‘Man, this is pretty cool.'”
Bob said, “I worked right out of school … and I was cleaning cars. I thought, ‘I ain’t going to drive a half-hour every day.’ … Well, then, when I seen some of Jim’s checks, I thought, ‘No, the half-hour ain’t bad.'”
Tom echoed these sweet impressions by saying it was a “good place to work, and you were always told back then, good money.”
George Miller’s career
George Miller, now 75, started his career at the Hershey’s 19 East plant in 1967, making about $2.42 per hour. A few weeks after he started at the plant, he received a job offer from the Cornwall Ore Mines, where he could make about $4.50 per hour.
George told LebTown that staying at Hershey “was sort of the best thing I ever done,” as Tropical Storm Agnes flooded the Cornwall Ore Mines in 1972, and the business closed shortly afterward.
During slow times at the plant, layoff periods were commonplace. The plant offered some employees the opportunity to continue working by taking what work was available.
Following the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by both chambers of Congress in 1972, George said that what were men’s jobs and women’s jobs when he started at Hershey became simply jobs, and the seniority lists were degendered.
This meant that during slow times, the plant offered women with more seniority the opportunity to continue working in what was traditionally considered men’s jobs, and vice versa. Employees who were selected had the agency to choose whether to continue working or to take the layoff.
George was laid off in one of his first years at Hershey. Soon after, he was salaried and was not laid off again.
The oldest Miller brother supervised production and maintenance operations at the 19 East plant until transferring to corporate engineering in 1995. He started a manufacturing support group, which supported plants in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Hilo, Hawaii. This involved frequent travel for a few years.
“One of the bad parts of that job was I ended up closing a lot of plants,” George said. “So, that was a tough job for me, but I ended up closing all the Canadian plants, where I had to go in there and see people that I worked with for years on their last day of work. So, it was a tough job.”
George mentioned that it was tough to watch everything he had helped create at the start of his career at the 19 East plant be torn down when it closed.
He retired in 2015, having worked for Hershey Chocolate Co. for 48 years.
Tom Miller’s career
Tom Miller, now 70, started his career at the Hershey’s 19 East plant in 1972. After being laid off in 1973, he left the company for 17 years before returning in 1990.
The middle Miller brother jokingly said he “closed them all,” supervising at Hershey Pasta until it closed in 1998, then supervising at the 19 East plant until it closed in 2012, and then supervising at the Reese plant until his retirement.
He retired in 2020, having worked for Hershey for 31 years.
Jim Miller’s career
Jim Miller, now 65, started his career at Hershey’s 19 East Plant in 1978 and worked in processing and packaging until the plant closed in 2012.
“People had the option of getting laid off or going down to heavy-duty. And they all went, ‘We’ll take lay off.’ Well, I was too dumb. For 12 years, I was in the heavy-duty, 100 degrees, dumping 1,200 pound batch truck,” Jim said. “But I thought that’s what you do. You worked. But that’s how you avoided lay off. I was lucky. I never got laid off in my life.”
The oldest in a set of identical twins by eight minutes relocated to the West Hershey plant.
He retired in 2022, having worked for Hershey for 44 years.
Bob Miller’s career
Bob Miller, also 65, started his career at Hershey’s 19 East Plant in 1979 after being delayed a year due to Three Mile Island. Like Jim, Bob was never laid off from Hershey.
The youngest of the twins worked in processing until the plant closed. He also relocated to the West Hershey plant after a three-year stint at what he called the ’45 building before its closure.
He retired in 2023, having worked for Hershey for 44 years.
The Miller brothers’ Hershey days, or decades
The four Miller brothers, who each has three children, reflected on how the times have changed since the start of their careers with the Hershey Chocolate Co.
George said that when he started at Hershey, he was used to having people touring the factory and watching him work. He said, “People used to tour through the factory. They’d go through the factory, then they’d come out. They had a candy store and everything like a soda fountain and everything there.”
In 1973, Chocolate World opened, putting an end to the factory tours and the accompanying sanitation concerns (with more than a million people touring through the factory per year).
During their time at Hershey Chocolate Co., the Miller brothers were featured in promotional content for the company, which ranged from celebrating perfect attendance to showcasing how many pieces of chocolate they wrapped per shift.
Bob retold a story about being at a roundtable, which is a meeting with all “the biggest bosses in the plant.” During the roundtable, a new hire who had worked at Hershey for two years and had earned perfect attendance for one year requested a parking space upfront for three months. During the time for questions, Bob raised his hand and said that he had perfect attendance for 21 years.
He said, “And I loved what the plant manager’s response was because this young girl said it’s impossible, almost, to have perfect attendance. He goes, ‘Now, we have a problem. If I’m going to give you a parking space for three months, I got to give Mr. Miller one with a new Corvette in it.'”
The Miller brothers doubt that they collectively took even three weeks of sick time within their 167 years of working at Hershey.
“We tried to put humor in our job, you know,” George said, which was a sentiment that Jim agreed with. “We tried to have fun with what we did. … It wasn’t always peaches and cream.”
As for why the Miller brothers stayed at Hershey Chocolate Co. for so many years, they said that the benefits were hard to beat. Although these benefits changed over the years, they remained competitive.
“Hershey was more of a family affair. They took care of you,” George said.
When George started at the company, they paid for his pension, which he became vested in after a few years. In the 1980s, he said the pension plans were replaced with 401k-style retirement plans, with the company matching up to a certain percentage.
Other sweet perks of working at Hershey included the pay, the availability of overtime hours, and the opportunity to continue working within the company in spite of layoffs and plant closures.
George said, “So I think my 48 years [at Hershey] is a great and sweet ride. You can eat all the unwrapped candy you wanted. That was the rule. You can eat all the chocolate, all the candy you wanted, but it had to be unwrapped.”
Reflections in retirement
Back in the day, the Miller brothers said that Hershey Chocolate Co. celebrated work anniversaries by allowing workers to select a gift from a catalog. Now, the company celebrates retirements by getting workers a cake.
Over time, George said, the company did away with some of the awards they used to present for perfect attendance and similar accomplishments.
When asked how retirement is going, Tom simply said, “I love retirement.”
Jim bartends on Thursdays for spending money but can otherwise financially support himself in his retirement because of his career. “I’m good. All is great. I don’t have one bad thing to say about working at Hershey,” he said.
As for Bob’s retirement, he said, “The only way I know what day it is [is] because of my pill box.”
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