U.S. Checks Conditions for Workers in Walkout

Source: The New York Times

The Department of Labor and the State Department opened investigations this week of job conditions at a Pennsylvania packing plant for Hershey’s chocolates where several hundred international exchange students walked off their jobs last week, protesting low pay and strenuous work.

The Hershey Company, after seeking to stay out of the dispute for several days, came forward on Tuesday and responded to the complaints by offering them a day of educational events at the chocolate company’s headquarters in Hershey.

Kirk Saville, a Hershey spokesman, said the company had also asked the contractor that operates the vast plant in nearby Palmyra, Pa., to give the foreign students a fully paid week off, so that they could travel to see some sights in the United States.

“We were disappointed to learn that some of the students were dissatisfied with the cultural exchange element of the program,” Mr. Saville said. “We want to ensure that all the students have a positive experience of this program and leave the United States with an understanding of the Hershey Company.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/25student.html

and as a reason that we have no jobs.

We have laws and regulations because of companies like this.

If we didn't have regulations, we would indeed have Third World working conditions.

no? oh well. future foreign union members

why is The Hershey Company, hiring so many foreign workers?

Ooohh, I see, "... low pay and strenuous work."

Just forgot to put it in the post.

Thanks for the suggestion.

in the name of education. Reminds me of the Florida charter school that hired its students out for road work.

Many people need to go to jail for this.

"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.

<snip>

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.

<snip>

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.

<snip>

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."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/students-protest-at-hersheys-packing-plant.html

There are no less than three obvious violations here:

1. Employment Agencies are ineligible to sponsor J1 visas. "SHS Staffing Solutions" provided the students.
2. J1 visa sponsors must directly control the place of business where the J1 holder will be employed. Some logistics company using SHS's temps can't satisfy this reqirement.
3. The sponsor is required to disclose all housing related expenses at the time the offer is extended.

I can think of half a dozen more undocumented but likely violations as well.

the owners representative is going to ask the contractor that operates the plant to give the foreign students a "fully paid week off"

how far do you think they'll get without vehicles?

the other quote about them being "disappointed to learn............." ahhhhhhh, you can't make this shit up, maybe they should have just

chained them to their work stations.

So the students came for cultural exchange. Hershey is gonna give them a day of cultural exchange at the company headquarters. They will probably be allowed to talk with the custodians at the same time they are cleaning the lavatories along side the custodians.

--That's your cultural exchange. Now get back to work.

completed, and they don't want to pay Americans a living wage for the work and hard long hours, so they are now, instead of exporting our jobs (probably because they know many Americans do not want to eat food marked, "Made in China", or "Made in Mexico") bringing in workers from other countries to do the non-skilled labor you can quickly train people to do, and treating these people like they're in a 3rd world country.

When the shit (or chocolate) hits the fan, Hershey jumps in to avoid more bad PR and offers a week off paid, and a day of free chocolate and history at their HQ! I had one brief encounter with one of these types of people (who get flown over to work here). This person was so starved to learn some better English that she kept asking me to talk so she could listen to me. It was sad. I am on a Hershey boycott because of this story.

Welcome to the new, free traitor's, my way or the Hershey Highway America! Bend over and assume the position.

The Beacon of Bullshit!

This company's Board and CEO have been deeply mired in scandal for at least 10 years. Funny thing, PA. Governor Tom Corbett, who was Pennsylvania'a Attorney General for most of that time, investigated them but didn't prosecute. Funny thing, Corbett is a long time friend with Hershey Board Chairman.

http://bestboardonthenet.runboard.com/t15147

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former official involved with the multibillion-dollar charitable trust that controls the Hershey candy company is claiming in a court filing that board members used the trust's considerable assets to pad their bank accounts and treat themselves to luxury hotel stays, limousine rides and free golf.

That official, Robert Reese, was fired Thursday by the Hershey Trust Co., the bank that manages the charity's money. Reese, a former top executive at the Hershey Co. candy company for 25 years, is the grandson of the man who started Reese's candy, which Hershey's bought in the 1960s. Most recently, Reese had served as a board member and the trust's president.

Reese detailed his accusations of misuse of power in a document he filed Tuesday in Dauphin County Orphans Court. In a separate filing Thursday, he named 12 current and former Hershey Trust board members, including chairman LeRoy S. Zimmerman, a former attorney general of Pennsylvania and a longtime friend of newly elected Gov. Tom Corbett, who was the attorney general last fall when the office revealed its investigation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/hershey-charity-robert-reese_n_822191.html

The Hershey Trust oversees more than $7 billion in assets, including Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co., operator of Hersheypark and the Hotel Hershey, and the controlling stake in the candy company begun more than a century ago by Milton S. Hershey.

Reese said the Hershey Trust board members voted themselves exorbitant salary increases in recent years, boosting them from $35,000 in 2002 to as much as $130,000 last year.

The trust bought a financially troubled golf course, partly owned by then-Hershey CEO and trustee Richard H. Lenny, and directed millions of dollars in upgrades to the Hotel Hershey, even though the $70 million cost was opposed by the hotel's financial management, Reese said. Board members went on to golf for free at the course and stay for free at the hotel, while occasionally traveling by limousine and in first-class airline seating, he said.

The trust has defended the golf course's purchase as a valuable buffer, but Reese said the trust performed no financial analysis to justify the $12 million price, triple the course's appraised value

More from the HuffPo link above:
A trustee, who was unnamed in the filing, hosted a political party fundraiser at the former home of Milton Hershey, High Point, which is owned by the trust, and a trust subsidiary catered the event without the political party committee paying any cost, Reese said. The trust or one of its subsidiaries also paid a government-relations consulting company partly owned by a son-in-law of a trustee hundreds of thousands of dollars without substantial evidence that the charity got its money's worth, Reese said.

In 2006, the trust allowed individual retirement accounts into its common funds, which financially and personally benefited a trustee, although the trustee had been advised that it was against federal securities regulations. Legal costs exceeded $11 million in money indirectly owned by the charity, Reese said.

Sounds to me like these exploited international students may well be the "low risk" travelers Obama wants to expedite entry for by gutting federal regulations to boost business profits for his campaign donors.

If I'm wrong, than any true believers are free to post, WITH A LINK, any official definition of "low risk travelers" provided by Obama, the White House, or the regulatory agency in question.


White House to Scale Back Regulations on Businesses

Source: Wall St. Journal

The Obama administration will release final plans Tuesday for ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations, an effort to reduce the burden on business and counter criticism that the White House is tone-deaf to business concerns.

Certain railroad cars won't have to install expensive technology, hospitals will be able to skip a round of federal paperwork and LOW-RISK TRAVELERS TO THE U.S.WILL ENJOY EXPEDITED ENTRY, officials said. Some businesses will be allowed to file federal forms electronically.

The administration estimates that about a dozen of the changes will save businesses some $10 billion over five years, with other smaller ...



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904279004...

It just stinks that a group of exploitative individuals were able to take over the board and rape it of the assets placed there by Milton Hershey to benefit the community and needy children. In 2007, the Board voted to cut back 1500 local jobs in Hershey, and open a new facility in Monterey, Mexico. We all know all cheap the labor and how non-existent the regulatory oversight are in Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_S._Hershey

He was part of a forward-looking group of entrepreneurs in this country and abroad who believed that providing better living conditions for their workers resulted in better workers…Milton Hershey conceived of building a community that would support and nurture his workers. Developing the community became a lifelong passion for him.<5>

The Hershey factory was in the center of dairy farmland, but with Hershey’s support, houses, businesses, churches, and a transportation infrastructure accreted around the plant. Because the land was surrounded by dairy farms, he was able to use fresh milk to mass-produce quality milk chocolate. Hershey continued to experiment and perfect the process of making milk chocolate using the techniques he had first learned for adding milk to make caramels when he had moved to Colorado.

The town of Hershey

Hershey envisioned a complete community around his factory site. He built a model town for his employees that included comfortable homes, an inexpensive public transportation system, a quality public school system and extensive recreational and cultural opportunities. Hershey avoided building a faceless company town with row houses. He wanted a home town with tree-lined streets, single- and two-family brick houses, and manicured lawns. He was concerned about providing adequate recreation and diversions, so he built Hershey Park (now rendered "Hersheypark"), which opened on April 24, 1907 and expanded rapidly over the next several years. Amusement rides, a swimming pool, and a ballroom were added. Soon, trolley cars and trains were bringing thousands of out-of-town visitors to the park.

Philanthropy
On May 25, 1898, Hershey married Catherine "Kitty" Sweeney. Since the couple could not have children, they decided to benefit others, establishing the Hershey Industrial School with a Deed of Trust in 1909.<3> Catherine died prematurely in 1915 and Hershey never remarried. In 1918, Hershey transferred the majority of his assets, including control of the company, to the Milton Hershey School Trust fund, to benefit the Industrial School. The trust fund has a majority of voting shares in The Hershey Company, allowing it to keep control of the company. In 1951, the school was renamed the Milton Hershey School. The Milton Hershey School Trust also has 100% control of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company, which owns the Hotel Hershey and HersheyPark, among other properties. He took great pride in the growth of the school, the town, and his business. HE PLACED THE QUALITY OF HIS PRODUCT AND THE WELL BEING OF HIS WORKERS AHEAD OF PROFITS.