International Union with the AFL. The chocolate workers’ new contract under the AFL gave them an increase in overtime rates, paid vacations, and a procedure for arbitrating grievances. Milton Hershey was deeply affected by the strike. He saw an end to the utopian-like quality of Hershey, PA. He recognized that workers who had battled each other, would now have to go back to work with each other. The innocence that once surrounded the Hershey Corporation was lost. Historical significance The Hershey Chocolate Workers’ Strike is notable because of its historical timing. The chocolate strike came in the middle of a massive wave of CIO strikes and specifically sit-down strikes. In March 1937, the sit-down strikes prominence peaked. There were sit-down strikes in 170 occupations, involving 167,210 workers. The Hershey strikers were organizing around the same time as the famous strike at the General Motors Corporation in Flint, Michigan, although it did not gain the same momentum. References External links Chocolate Workers Local 464 1937 labor disputes and strikes The Hershey Company History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania chocolate workers