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Friday, August 19, 2011

Foreign Students Walk Off Hershey’s Factory Job In Protest

Hundreds of foreign students on a State Department cultural exchange visa program walked off their factory jobs in protest on Wednesday.


The J-1 visa program brings foreign students to the country to work for two months and learn English, and was designed in part to fill seasonal tourism jobs at resorts and seaside towns. The 400 students employed at a Pennsylvania factory that makes Hershey's candies told The New York Times that even though they make $8.35 an hour, their rent and program fees are deducted from their paychecks, leaving them with less money than they spent to get the visas and travel to the country in the first place.

Some of the students were assigned night shifts, and said they were pressured to work faster and faster on the factory lines.

Hershey's said they didn't hire the students when the Times asked:

A spokesman for Hershey's, Kirk Saville, said the chocolate company did not directly operate the Palmyra packing plant, which is managed by a company called Exel. A spokeswoman for Exel said it had found the student workers through another staffing company.
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5 comments:

  1. Okay, GO HOME!
    Let Americans have those jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Let Americans have those jobs."

    Sorry but YOUR Government won't permit that. You see, the financial incentive for employers NOT to hire Americans is too great until the laws are changed.

    Start asking YOUR elected officials to change this and hope that they listen We should not be running a foreign vacation program at the expense of American jobs!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We should not be running a foreign vacation program at the expense of American jobs!

    August 19, 2011 6:24 PM

    I just read online that hershey is moving some manufacturing to mexico. More U.S. jobs lost. Wonder if they were union?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hershey (HSY) is cutting 1,500 jobs over three years as part of a plan to scale back production and move some manufacturing to Mexico, the candy maker announced Thursday.

    Spokesman Kirk Saville said Hershey currently employs more than 13,000 people, which would mean the cuts will amount to something less than 11.5% of its workforce.


    The company said it will outsource production of low value-added items and also plans to build a plant in Monterrey, Mexico to meet growing demand in that country.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here in the US, Hershey has been shifting production away from unionized facilities.

    International Student Guest Workers Protest Workers Hershey & Exel Companies
    Students Say They Were Treated Like "Slaves"

    Union officials for The Hershey Company stood up for the students on Wednesday

    So yes, it appears that the hershey company is unionized. And they are moving some jobs to mexico. Cheaper labor and no union it would suggest.

    Another nice job unions.

    ReplyDelete

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