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Business Title: Student workers protest at Hershey's, say their life not so sweet For 400 foreign students, working at a Hershey's chocolate packing plant in Palmyra, Pa., may be less sweet than it sounds. The National Guestworker Alliance filed a complaint Wednesday on behalf of 400 international students who had apparently paid $3,000 to $6,000 to participate in a U.S.-certified cultural exchange program. The complaint, sent to the U.S. Department of State, says the students were exploited by Hershey Co. and that the company takes unfair advantage of the program. The students also launched a protest at the plant. Those protests were continuing Thursday, with the students, labor leaders and Pennsylvania workers who have joined the fight rallying in downtown Hershey, according to an email alert the alliance sent to The Times The organization, which helped organize the protests, has dubbed their efforts the Justice at Hershey's Campaign. The students, who hail from countries such as China, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Mongolia, Ghana and Thailand, were recruited at their universities to participate in the U.S. State Department J-1 visa program, described on a U.S. State Department website as an Exchange Visitor Program. The program leads to a three-month visa that allows students to work in the United States while learning about American culture and improving their English skills. The goal of the program, according to the State Department's site, is to foster "global understanding through educational and cultural exchange." Instead, says a representative of the National Guestworker Alliance, students who wound up at the Hershey's plant were living in "economic captivity," forced to pay for mandatory company housing that left them with $40 to $140 a week for 40 hours of work. "They were desperate and feeling isolated," the organization's communications director, Stephen Boykewich, said in an interview with The Times. According to the complaint, conveniently made available to media, when the students complained about the violations of U.S. law, "they were threatened with deportation and other long term immigration consequences to remain quiet about the violations." Hershey's did not respond to a Los Angeles Times' request for comment, but company officials told the Associated Press that the warehouse is run by a subcontractor and is expected to treat workers fairly. The AP also reports that a spokeswoman for the subcontractor says another company handles its guest worker program. Of course, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that working at a chocolate factory might not be all sweet dreams and chocolate Kisses. Weren’t the Oompa-Loompas kind of indentured servants? Poster Comment: Slave labor at its best for higher corporate profits. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9. The students, who hail from countries such as China, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Mongolia, Ghana and Thailand, were recruited at their universities to participate in the U.S. State Department J-1 visa program, described on a U.S. State Department website as an Exchange Visitor Program. The program leads to a three-month visa that allows students to work in the United States while learning about American culture and improving their English skills. Ha. I'm sure the working conditions in their home countries is so much better than those in the USA.
#6. To: Thunderbird (#4) Are you actually defending their treatment? They paid from $3,000 - $6,000 (IIRC) for their 3 month visas for the 'privilege' of cultural exchange and work. They obviously learned some key English phrases - hurry up, work faster, etc.
#9. To: Fred Mertz (#6) They paid from $3,000 - $6,000 (IIRC) for their 3 month visas for the 'privilege' of cultural exchange and work. Paid to whom? AFAIK, the US doesn't 'sell' visas.
Replies to Comment # 9. Paid to whom? WASHINGTON -- Three Pennsylvania labor leaders were detained by police Wednesday during a protest of working conditions for foreign students at a Hershey distribution center in Palmyra, Pa. Labor activists said that the students had to pay between $3,000 and $6,000 to come to the United States on J-1 travel visas for the summer, and that after deductions for housing they’ve been earning a mere $40 to $140 in exchange for working 40-hour weeks. Stephen Boykewich, a spokesman for the National Guestworker Alliance, an advocacy group for guest workers in the U.S., said that the students were recruited in their home countries, mostly in Eastern Europe and Asia, and were offered the opportunity to visit America and improve their English. Boykewich said that roughly 400 students were working at the plant and that the "vast majority" of them have walked out. Workers at the facility in Palmyra package Hershey’s candies to be distributed to stores. Kirk Saville, a Hershey’s spokesman, said the foreign workers were not directly employed by the candy giant. “Beyond that, I can say that the Hershey Company expects all of its vendors to treat its employees fairly and equitably,” Saville said. Saville referred The Huffington Post to Exel, Inc., the third-party logistics company that oversees the distribution center. A spokeswoman for that company said that the student workers were not directly employed by Exel, either. “We’re not trying to pass the buck,” Exel spokeswoman Lynn Anderson said. “It’s a bit of a layered situation.”
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