Hershey Restarts Plant With Nonunion Crew

Hershey Foods Corp., unable to persuade striking workers to accept a new contract calling for an increase in their health-care costs, said it restarted production at one of its two shuttered candy plants with nonunion workers.

Negotiations aimed at ending a five-week strike at two plants, representing about a fifth of the largest U.S. chocolate maker’s total production, broke off early Tuesday.

Investors have begun to worry that the maker of Kisses, Hershey’s bars and other confections will have difficulty meeting production demands as it begins to ramp up for the critical back-to-school and Halloween selling season. Hershey shares fell $1.38, or 2%, to $64.40 on the NYSE.