JUSTICE at HERSHEY'S

Wednesday, 17 August, 2011 15:17
On August 17, hundreds of student guestworkers from around the world were joined by unemployed American workers and labor leaders in a factory sit-in at the Hershey Chocolate Company packing plant in Pennsylvania.

The students paid $3,000-6,000 each to come to America this summer for what they thought would be a cultural exchange program. Instead, they found themselves packing chocolates at the Hershey’s plant in deeply exploitative conditions.

Their demands: end the exploitation of student workers at the Hershey’s plant, and make these jobs living wage jobs for local workers.


http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/category/news/page/12/



How many knew? How many cared? Hershey's, American greed.

Just hours after four federal government agencies launched investigations into the exploitation of J-1 student workers in the Hershey’s packing plant—including a surprise inspection of the plant Tuesday by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—Hershey’s directed its subcontractors to offer the students paid vacations.

Early morning Tuesday, OSHA began a surprise inspection of the Hershey’s packing plant in Palmyra, which it continued all day Tuesday and was set to resume Wednesday morning. OSHA also confirmed Tuesday that it had opened a Whistleblower Protection Program investigation into the case.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division launched its own investigation into the exploitation of J-1 student workers at the Hershey’s plant, and the U.S. State Department scheduled interviews with the students for Thursday, August 25, as part of its own investigation.

Hours after learning of the four investigations, Hershey’s abandoned its claims that it bore no responsibility for the exploitation of J-1 students at its packing plant, and directed its subcontractors to offer the students paid vacations.

http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/category/news/page/11/


State sanctions Hershey’s labor recruiter CETUSA for exploitation, retaliation

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 2, 2012—Today, in a vindication of the six-month campaign by the National Guestworker Alliance (NGA), the U.S. State Department announced it had barred major student guestworker recruiter CETUSA from the J-1 summer work travel visa program.

The State Department is also considering major structural changes to the J-1 program, which the NGA has pressed to protect future student workers.

CETUSA had sourced student workers into exploitation at the Hershey’s Chocolate plant in Palmyra, PA. Students organized to stop abuses, and demanded that Hershey’s turn the temporary jobs filled by J-1s back into living wage jobs for local workers. CETUSA responded with threats and retaliation.

“The State Department’s ban on CETUSA is a big win for the students, and a blow against the larger trend of labor recruiters and companies using guestworkers to hollow out industries and undercut wages and conditions all over America,” said NGA Director Saket Soni.

“Corporations like Hershey’s and labor recruiters like CETUSA have turned the J-1 cultural exchange program into the country’s largest guestworker program, and profited from captive workers earning low wages,” Soni said.

http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/category/news/page/9/


Hershey's response

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