Community | August 18, 2011 | 37 comments

Student Guestworkers At Hershey Plant Allege Exploitative Conditions

source: http://huffingtonpost.com

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Buckeye_Bill
Dave Jamieson
dave.jamieson@huffingtonpost.com
Posted: 8/17/11 10:14 PM ET

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.”

Anderson said that although Exel does run the distribution center, in this case the company had contracted a temporary worker company, which had in turn supplied the foreign workers to Exel.

She added that the guest workers wound up at the Hershey plant to supplement the full-time staff during a busy summer season.

“We require a lot of extra workers for a short period of time, and we use temporary labor for that,” Anderson said. As for any alleged exploitation at the plant, she said “we absolutely have standards and expectations” for our contractors. “If our supplier isn’t meeting our expectations, then we’ll take the necessary steps.”

Anderson directed The Huffington Post to SHS Staffing Solutions, the temp company that she said supplied the workers. But Sean Connolly, an SHS spokesman, said that while SHS did handle their payroll, the workers were actually supplied by a different agency.

“We just handle the payroll,” Connolly said.

He referred any questions about the foreign workers’ employment to the Council for Educational Travel USA (CETUSA), which he said supplied the workers to SHS.

On its website, CETUSA calls itself a “global exchange organization dedicated to helping people from different cultures develop more compassion and understanding for one another.” The nonprofit also says on its website that it helps foreign students obtain J-1 visas. Such visas are typically issued to foreigners interested in cultural exchange or business training in the U.S.

CETUSA officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

According to Boykewich, those arrested outside the Palmyra plant were Rick Bloomingdale, AFL-CIO Pennsylvania state president; Neal Bisno, an SEIU official; and Kathy Jellison, president of SEIU Local 668. The protesters had allegedly disrupted work at the facility.

"It's an entire labor strategy," Boykewich said of putting foreign students to work at facilities like the one in Palmyra. "Companies get extraordinarily productive workers for a fraction of what they used to pay."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/student-guestworkers-at-hershey-plant_n...
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  2. tags:
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37 comments // Student Guestworkers At Hershey Plant Allege Exploitative Conditions

  • Buckeye_Bill
    • 0
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image

    • Panda Express Sued By Feds For Treatment Of Latino Employees
      First Posted: 8/18/11 05:54 PM ET Updated: 8/18/11 05:56 PM ET

      ".....For months [the manager] treated me like a worthless employee," Aremy Lomely, a former Panda Express employee, told the Oakland Tribune. "I felt so ashamed when the Asian workers watched me obediently run from the bathroom to the tables to the counters, cleaning when they did not have to."

      Lomely is part of a federal court filing against a San Jose Panda Express restaurant that allegedly forced Latino employees to clean toilets and perform other menial tasks while Asian employees of equal ranking stood by and watched. According to the suit, the manager of the restaurant also punished Latino employees more often and more harshly, frequently cutting Latino employee hours and awarding them to Asian employees instead. According to SFGate, the allegations occurred from 2008 to 2009, and the restaurant has since hired new management...." (Con't)

      (Follow lnik below to the website for more information)

      Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/panda-express-sued-by-feds_n_930873.htm...

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      It's happening everywhere. Employers know they have the Republicans to "watch their back". As business owners emulate how Republicans want to abolish employee rights and crush unions these cases will become more common in the near future. Employers have been given the "green light" to strip employees of a shread of decency while pushing for reduced pay and the loss of other benefits that used to be the norm.

      I suppose the Republicans won't be happy until we are paid the same as a third world country, have the same benefits, i.e., none, and you better be happy you have a job!

      Don't vote for a Obama and this is what you'll get and more if a Republican walks into the White House in 2012.

    • 9 months ago
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • +1
      Buckeye_Bill  

    • So, Hershey's had an outside employment agency that paid those 400 students $8.35/hr. and then had the rent charged the students taken out and their "fee" the students had to pay to the agency for providing the cheap labor and by the time everyone was through taking money out of their paychecks, they weren't left with much!

      The poor students were in the "hole" financially when they figured they paid more to come here for two months to work and learn how to speak English.

      But this isn't the worst some students faced. Those that worked at Hershey's were very lucky they weren't "drafted" into prostitution after their sponsors took away their visas so they couldn't leave! In 2008 alone, some 150,000 young people were allowed to enter the U.S. on those J-1 visas. So, I wonder how many "victims" were abused by the system? 50%? 70%? 90%? We'll never know if we rely on the government to tell us. Watch, in a couple of months this story will be buried and forgotten.

      And the driving force behind Hershey's hiring these students? So they won't have to pay any Social Security for each one pocketing about 8% of what the students earned! Anf all the "local and state" payroll deductions, too!

      Greed. Obscene GREED! Heads should roll!

      ..

    • 9 months ago
  • queenofit
    • +1
      queenofit  

    • They were doing the same thing in Branson MO at a John Q Hammons Hotel, it was called The Chateau on the Lake. Nice hotel and huge. I worked there a while, and recall those kids trying to explain the way it was set up, which I could never understand. The hotel eventually ended up in some kind of trouble over it, but by then I wasn't working there anymore and did not find out much more. It was hushed up pretty fast.

    • 9 months ago
  • Buckeye_Bill
  • cmc101
  • queenofit
    • +1
      queenofit  
    • cmc101:

      I googled and found an article about that, sounds pretty serious. 92 years old, he is at the age where he could be slipping, many people are, at that age and younger. Gosh, that was probably the worst run hotel I have ever worked in, the turnover rate unequaled. That is why they were bringing in foreign students to work, treat them like dirt, they would be leaving shortly anyway. These type of corporations don't give a hoot about their employees, just fill position with a body; that type of attitude affects everyone who works there. The article I just read makes him sound as if he is another Howard Hughes, (in terms of hiding out). Thanks for the info....

    • 9 months ago
  • cmc101
  • queenofit
    • 0
      queenofit  
    • cmc101:

      That would make sense if he had any family. His wife institutionalized with Alzheimer and they have no children. However, it is more than likely not as interesting as Hughes story was, John Q is not a Howard Hughes. Howard Hughes suffered with OCD, I think his problems could have been treated if they had known more about at the time.

    • 9 months ago
  • warman1138
  • warman1138
    • +2
      warman1138  

    • Why ship your work overseas to a sweatshop when you can set one up here, shift the responsability around enough so its confusing and call it business training.

    • 9 months ago
  • WagonMaster
    • +2
      WagonMaster  

    • I don't think this is an isolated instance. On a visit to an out of the way casino in CasinoLand, I encountered a large group of young Turks doing all the menial stuff a casino pays minimum wage for, at much less than minimum wage and much longer hours. They had living quarters and meals provided, both substandard and their wages held until their visas ran out and they returned to Turkey. Their accounts were settled deducting about 3/4 of the earnings to cover employer expenses and they left about 20 bucks richer than when they arrived. I got all this from one intelligent, pissed off crapper attendent. Casinos are definately corporate entities, and they all exploit the hell out of John Q. Loadass.

    • 9 months ago
  • CalgarC
  • Incredulous
  • CalgarC
  • bailey78
  • CalgarC
  • bailey78
  • cmc101
  • CalgarC
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • +1
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image
    • Incredulous:

      My wife LOVES Ghirardelli chocolate!

      "For many years, a bright colored parrot and the words, "Say Gear-ar-delly," (a phonetic spelling of the name) were used to help solve the pronunciation problem. The strategy proved to be very successful."

      It's far better than that "stuff" Hershey's tries to pass off as chocolate!

    • 9 months ago
  • Incredulous
    • +3
      Incredulous  

    • Goodbye Hershey...and this B.S. about who is responsible is, in my opinion, deliberately contrived, but ultimately, just like Kathy Lee Gifford was held accountable for the debacle with child labor being used to produce her personal label outside of the US, Hershey is responsible for what goes on with their product, and if they didn't know, shame on them.

      Damn I hate saying goodbye to any form of chocolate.

    • 9 months ago
  • joynoel
    • +2
      joynoel  

    • I stopped buying my favortie candy, york peppermint patties when the Hershey company moved production from PA to Mexico. I miss them but was so angry that they took the operation to Mexico. I tell everyone I see eating one that that is a Mexican product and sure enough, many people are suprised and angry. I guess I'll have to stop buying Hershey altogether.

    • 9 months ago
  • cmc101
  • hurleyburly
  • cmc101
  • artemis6
  • EdJoyProductions
  • artemis6
  • Frosty46
    • +6
      Frosty46  

    • Layered situation--now there is a Republican truth avoidance system in full roar!
      Lying, cheating, stealing the American way by means of selfish exploitation of others now that's my Republicans hard at work!

      Hershey gets a big ol KISS OFF from me---in fact a little in store sabotage of packages of Hershey products may be required--you know poke a hole with your finger or other device in say 40 packages every time we shop ----just to say howdy in a Texas kind of way.

    • 9 months ago
  • EdJoyProductions
    • +7
      EdJoyProductions  

    • I have one word for you "internship". Those foreign students aren't the only ones getting the shaft. Bull shit college programs also provide slave labor and make the slave pay for the privilege.

    • 9 months ago
  • lawlessgeo
    • +4
      lawlessgeo  
    • EdJoyProductions:

      I was thinking the same thing while I was reading that! I thought "hey that sounds like an internship" which, by today's "standards", doesn't actually sound that bad since they actually pay you more than your housing costs! The part that infuriates me most is why this work wasn't available to Americans that desperately need money and places to stay!

    • 9 months ago
  • Incredulous
    • +3
      Incredulous  
    • EdJoyProductions:

      tis true, and colleges and universities all over the US have been getting away with it for decades. It is particularly prominent in research labs. The students come over here on visas, and if they don't work the long hours demanded by the professors in charge of the lab, they not only stand the chance of losing their job, but the conditions of their visas say, no job, you go home. It is scandalous. Every college and university administration knows about it, and pretty much does nothing but profit from it.

    • 9 months ago
  • cmc101
  • Warren_Merrill
  • Buckeye_Bill
    • +10
      Buckeye_Bill  
    • Image

    • Corporations feel as if they can get away with anything they want to. This story is an example of how they would love to treat all their employees. Wait until a Republican steps foot in the White House again!

      As bad as people think Obama is, go ahead and don't support him or don't vote for him in 2012 and you will get your chance to see what it would be like.

      If you think we the people have a fight on our hands trying to prevent this batch of yahoos in congress from cutting back SS payments or worrying about whether MediCare will cover an illness or injury, how long do you believe it will take for the Repblicans to COMPLETELY put an end to the Social Security Trust Fund? How long will it take for them to create a voucher plan that will be worth less than the paper it's written on to replace MediCare? How long do you think there will be Unemployment Insurance checks to receive if, through no fault of your own, you lose your job?

      How many public schools will be open to teach your children? How much do you think you will be paying a private school when they realize they're the only "game" in town and can gouge you for all they can get?

      Who will ensure that you can eat the vegetables or eat the meat corporations will cut corners doing their best to make a profit whether it nakes you sick from eating them or even dying from trying?

      Who will make sure the water is safe to drink? Who will make sure your workplace is a safe environment for work and you don't have to fear getting injured on the job, because workers compensation is no more?

      Who?

      The Republicans?

      Yeah, riiiiiiiiight.

    • 9 months ago
  • charliesommers
  • Warren_Merrill
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