BY BARBARA MILLER AND DAN MILLER, The Patriot-News

As the Hershey Trolley carried tourists past the chocolate plant that Milton S. Hershey built, workers walked to their cars Tuesday carrying white envelopes with information about the company’s plans to close the historic factory.

Workers said they will vote Friday on whether to accept the company’s plan to transfer jobs to the newer West plant, with a severance package offered to those who don’t make the cut.

There was a mix of sadness and anger among the workers, most of whom said they’ll vote for the proposal to save at least some jobs.

“There is really no option,” said Todd Zulick of Lebanon, who said he’s worked at the plant for 30 years. “There was no negotiating — they said this is the way it’s going to be.”

Company officials have said 500 to 600 jobs might be lost when it closes the 19 E. Chocolate Ave. plant, but some workers would be offered positions at the West plant. Employees said about 1,000 workers are at the older factory.

Darwin Williams of Harrisburg, who’s worked at the plant since 1980, also said he sees little choice other than to take the company’s offer.

“We knew when the next contract came around we were going to take a beating,” he said.

“Even when we get to West Hershey, there could be a situation if somebody decides they could do it cheaper somewhere else, they’ll do it,” Williams said. “I don’t think anything in Hershey is secure.”

Teresa Smith of North Cornwall Township, who has worked at the older plant for 29 years, said she wasn’t shocked by the news, just disappointed.

“It’s very upsetting. They’re not looking at what the legacy of this place was,” she said.

Brent Johnson, who’s worked there 11 years, said the second shift was going to hear details in a meeting at the start of its day.

“Friday we’ll vote. If it doesn’t end up ‘yes,’ it will close at the end of the year. If it’s ‘yes,’ they’ll keep it open until 2013, and everything will move to West Hershey,” Johnson said.

“I think Hershey is greedy,” he said. “It’s a billion-He said he thinks the company’s goal is to pay lower wages and insurance benefits. The lowest-paid worker earns about $20 an hour, he said.

People in downtown Hershey seemed resigned to the news and not surprised.

A woman who worked at the Parkside Hotel across from Hersheypark on East Derry Road described the announcement as a self-fulfilling prophecy that the company could have prevented if it had invested in the old plant.

“Surely, they could see this coming,” said the woman, who would not give her name. She couldn’t say how the job losses would affect the Parkside, a popular hangout for company workers, especially those coming for breakfast after the graveyard shift

Greg Berger said he worked in management for The Hershey Co. for 28 years until retiring in 2008. Now he’s a landscaper for Hershey Nursery.

Berger said the West plant requires far fewer workers because it is so automated compared with the East plant. Where the company probably needs up to 30 workers to staff a typical production line in the East plant, the same line in the West plant would require four.

“It makes sense as far as making a profit for the company,” Berger said.

John Christopher said he was a production worker at the East plant for 25 years until he left in 2004 to start a business, Johnny’s Down Under barber shop on West Chocolate Avenue.

“I think that the writing has been on the wall for that plant for some time. It was just a question of when they would pull the trigger,” Christopher said.

Mike Pries, chairman of the Derry Township Board of Supervisors, said supervisors are monitoring the situation to determine the economic impact to the township and surrounding communities.

“It’s too early to speculate on the impact, if any, on tourism,” he said.