Hershey exploitation

It's unfortunate that these young people feel they are being treated unfairly. I don't know exactly what they expected however. Here are some facts and figures that might shed some light on the reality of their situation:

1. Prior to departing for the US from their home country, they were given detailed information about their wages and any deductions that would be taken out of their gross pay. These include:
- Taxes
- Health care insurance
- Guest worker administration fees
- Housing
- Uniforms
- Other fees specific to the organization for which they would be employed.

2. Their gross pay must be at least minimum wage for the US State in which they are employed. Currently that is $7.25. According to the video, they are being paid $8.35 per hour.

3. They must be provided health care insurance.

4. The students are allowed to spend up to 30 days in the US before reporting for work. If they successfully complete the work program, they are allowed to stay in the US up to 30 days before they are required to return to their home country, provided they return to their home country prior to the beginning of the next school term.

5. Because of past illegal activity by student guest workers and other reasonings by the Department of Homeland Security, these student workers must be closely supervised. The US laws allow the student sponsors to recoup those management costs directly from the student workers themselves.

Here are a couple of links that spell out the requirements for these programs:

J-1 Visa Program Administration
Updates and Clarifications to the J-1 Visa Program Administration

Factory work is hard work. Just about everyone I have ever known who has done factory work has hated it. Workers are constantly monitored and pushed to "make production." That's the amount of work that a business has determined is necessary to justify an employees wages and other costs. Unfortunately that is a fact of life in a competitive business environment.

So, while I feel their pain, I must say that these students were informed of their rights and responsibilities prior to even coming to the US. If they weren't fully informed, then their sponsors have acted contrary to the law and are thus open to legal and civil liabilty. We all make bad decisions sometimes. But, we have to live with those bad decisions.

For those of you who are tea party members and support Michele Bachmann's elimination of the minimum wage, this video clearly shows how corporations will take advantage of the cheapest hourly wage possible. Threatening these workers with repercussions if they quit their job is shameful. It goes against everything America stands for.

This was cold and calculating on the part of Hershey. They knew exactly what they were doing. Hiring foreign worker in a catch 22 situation is simply slave labor. Now they don't have to send their manufacturing facilities overseas for cheap labor, they have devised a new scheme to bring cheap labor to America.

Corporations main goals now are to break unions so they can send workers rights back to days of poor working conditions and poverty wages. The American public who demand an end to organized labor are shooting themselves in the foot. Stop supporting American corporate agendas! Once unions are busted, non-union corporations will start lowering their wages. Without the threat of workers organizing, they will feel secure to lower their wages accordingly and ignore workers rights.

Does this surprise you from a company whos founder tried to make a utopia where men could not shave and woman could not show their ankles? Yeah... Google it.

This is so unbelievable...WHY!?! People here need jobs & "they" decide to torture people to work for them. NO more Hershey's for me, this has sickened me

One person may not make a difference..... But... I can never buy or eat another Hershey product again after seeing this....

Not until something is done about this...That is just awful.

I had no idea....

I personally cannot support that....And I will not.

Shame on Hershey.

OP,you should send a copy of this video to the MSM....They would eat it up ( No pun intended) .....Something needs to be done...

Loon on CNN and all the news sites...Even your local sites....Send it to them!

In fact... I am going to do that myself.

Originally posted by zbeliever
They do the samething in my town...The Amusement Park Cedar Point hires out of the country and houses and works the kids long hours.Takes houseing out of there pay.They use to hire at all the colleges but now they bring the workers in and on thier name tags are from what country they are from....I have seen Thailand and Singapore...to name a few...

oh like the international house of pancakes or whatever?
are they mainly restaurant workers?

Originally posted by Blaine91555


Housing is pay, both legally and morally in fact. It is even considered income by the IRS. I'm not sure I see why you use the word "dock" their "pay" when in fact it is "pay".

Could you explain why company provided housing is not pay??????? Why would any rational person complain about getting company housing as part of their pay if they need it? Sour grapes? Irrationality? Certainly not for any credible reason. Of course there are always those that think the world owes them a living who suck at the teat of the government trough and parrot whatever they are told to say as long as they get money they did not earn.

Wow.

Then I guess the Hershey workers are not much different than those exploited for sex trafficking, They get a place to stay too and if they don't like they can go homeless, back to Mexico - or worse killed. Better than the government trough though right?

This is nothing less than the result of unchecked Capitalism. Only instead of off-shoring, they're so brazen and secure in their un-prosecutability as to on-shore them now in a bait and switch slavery scheme.

Ah the old dream of the free, and land of the free. Dont get me wrong people america is not a bad place but it aint free, all of that is just a marketing slogan.

And it is all exploitation that's the whole name of the game and the game is fixed. Ah america the dream has come true, and the dream is slowly starting to turn into a nightmare.

And sorry to say it aint like it used to be when back in the day when gas was cheap and pepsi was 10cents, those were the good and easy days, now it aint so good. It's more along the lines of live or die by a hairs circumstance.

The truth is most of them would of been better of back were they came from, but the illusions are strong both for the immigrants and especially for those who have been raised in it, most of them actually believe there free.
But I suppose it must be true, after all that's what it says on the TV and in the Books they make you read at school.

And watch out other places peoples, corporate america, and all other corporate entities, are coming to a town near you in there mission to "free' all the poor unfortunate peoples of the world. They just want to healp you all out, to get a job and and work your way up in 'there" world. Aren't they thoughtful.

Ah, Good ol Americana, the dream has come true.

It is still unclear if they are allowed to go swimming in the giant vats of melted chocolate.

Originally posted by brindle
It is still unclear if they are allowed to go swimming in the giant vats of melted chocolate.

Nah I think the issue is that they got traped there by the ink on the dotted line, and all the unseen rules and regulations, basically they got ripped off and sold a dream that never existed in the first place, all for the profit of the few over the many. ie exploitation for profit.

If you watch the vid most of them are not arguing if they should stay there, or this or that, and if they could they would of went back were they came from with the quickness, because they would have been better of.

But unfortunately there are more ways to chain people then the ol guns pointed at there head while they work. Oh noz society has moved on from that and gotten much more complicated. And so the chains have gotten much more complicated and are invisible to those who don't know how this game works. But there still there.

What a load of crap. Hershey definitely should've paid these student $3,000-$4,000 for 3 weeks of labor. They also should have let them work at their own leisure and not expected "productivity" out of them. Yes, and then as soon as they sent the students on their way to being productive professional students that "deserve" a high-paying white collar American job, they should have begun accepting applications immediately from the likes of the poor unemployed American boy and paid him $20+ dollars an hour plus benefits to fold boxes and load candy bars. Then we could start paying $5 retail for a hunk of chocolate with Hershey stamped on it! I'll be the first in line to buy one.

You bunch of whining, Marxist, lazy little drones. We're already paying $25-$45K for an American made piece of crap car built by whiny, unionized auto workers who make $35 per hour to stand on a line and put a bolt in a hole. And then we wonder why the US is no longer competitive. We wonder why little, entitled Johnny engineer designed such a crap car and Joe six-pack built the bucket of bolts, and then bought a Kawasaki jet-ski to take to the company picnic down at the local lake!

Oh but, even though it's advanced and safer than cars from 30 years ago, it will crumple if a shopping cart bumps into it, it gets horrible fuel mileage, there are 26 recalls on it, it's plastic (not glass anymore) headlights turn yellow from the sun, and you'll be paying on it for 15 years......But it is green. Ya, it still burns fossil fuels, is built from tin alloys, plastic, pleather, and every other sort of mined or extracted material the planet has to offer.....but it's green.

Wake the hell up Americans! We'll whine ourselves into oblivion. Go get a real job and learn what real work is! "Ooooh, I pulled my little Game Boy thumb muscle while I was loading heavy chocolate candy bars today! America is evil and I'll talk to the chocolate packers union because I'm entitled." Then go back to Bangledash or whatever little hole you crawled out of and watch your USA #1 Superman and Rambo movies on VHS.

Originally posted by imherejusttoread

Originally posted by pryingopen3rdeye
honestly though, what the hell do you people expect? what country do you think you are in? the mythical "land of the free"? or is this capitalism? im tellin you, capitalism and freedom do not go together,

Economic freedom, or the ability to choose how to consume your wealth, is the backbone of true capitalism. What you describe amounts to trampling on economical rights for the sake of political rights. You don't have political rights without first having established economical rights. Free-market Capitalism is the very expression of economical freedom.

The only thing I see wrong with this video is the recruitment of people from different countries at the tax payer's expense.

think of it this way, if it profits them to enslave someone and they can be sure to get away with it, they will do it because their bottom line is profit,

however if the bottom line was freedom, then they would not infringe upon a freedom even if it meant profit,

it shouldn't be to surprising how often a business/corporation is left to make a decision of infringe on someones freedom? OR lose profit,

hence why it is necessary to determine which one is the bottom line. freedom or profit,

what you have just said is only the illusion that was fed to you, think through your words and realize how they contradict


also dont forget, there is no freemarket when the whole market is dominated by monopolies

in vegas you can go around the outter rim of downtown. there spotmen will approach you and ask if you want to make an easy $100-200. people that want to go forward are taken to an alley way where they wait(usually by bloodbank). eventually a white van comes by to pickup eager volunteers. from there they are taken somewhere I'm not sure of, but they are made to show their ID and SS and sign their name over bunches of timesheets. then they are cut a check, which you have to give a cut to the spotman and driver.

so what are those timesheets for? a few of the major casino resorts use them to legally float some of their migrant workers. visas are one thing, but when you really want to pay absolutely nothing under the table, you need the guise of a legal citizen. those workers are housed in the vast basements of these places on cots.

if I didn't think people like harry reid would have my body in the desert, I would go on one of them vans and record this. but for now take my word and see for yourself if your ever in downtown vegas.

Originally posted by Dragoon01
So let me get this straight.
These kids come from a foreign nation and pay their way here. They get an appartment to live in and the freedom to take classes at US schools and shop at US stores and send what ever they want home and in return they are asked to only work 40 hours a week and pay for the apartment.

MY GOD THATS SLAVERY!

WHO could DARE ask someone to actually work for FORTY hours on TWELVE hour shifts doing manual labor? GOD the HUMANITY! Its virtual sweet shop, oh wait SWEAT shop!
AND PAY FOR THEIR LIVING SPACE
Those poor children were practically chained to those machines!

Grow the hell up. In highschool I worked for less money 32 hours a week with no benefits after I did 8 hours a day at school. You dont live on minimum wage its there for entry level jobs to provide folks a way of earning their place in a company and working their way up. Its not there to raise a family.

I have worked for 28 years in a factory 40 to 56 hours a week. I am thankful to have a job. These kids need to grow up factory work is not for everyone, just like construction and other jobs are not for everyone.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
One person may not make a difference..... But... I can never buy or eat another Hershey product again after seeing this....

Not until something is done about this...That is just awful.

I had no idea....

I personally cannot support that....And I will not.

Shame on Hershey.

OP,you should send a copy of this video to the MSM....They would eat it up ( No pun intended) .....Something needs to be done...

Loon on CNN and all the news sites...Even your local sites....Send it to them!

In fact... I am going to do that myself.

edit on 18-8-2011 by gimme_some_truth because: (no reason given)

You are going to starve or learn to grow your own food quickly if you stop buying food from any place that isn't morally grey. I would argue most, if not all, large companies will cut whatever moral corners they can to save money.

At least these workers were here willingly, and regardless of what they said, they were free to go home at anytime they wanted. They knew the details of the arrangement (pay, living arrangements, etc) before they left. It just turns out the job was harder than they thought.

From what i read on the J-1 Visa Program these college kids got caught in a deceptive practice. I didn't see anythng listed on the J-1 Visa Program for line workers. It sounds like they were hired as "trainees" and thrown on the line.

Their pay is better than fair until you do the math and see that they are being charged $150 a week for their room.

So instead of getting a little of the US culture they're working for 30 days for a take home pay of $520 which won't even cover their cost to travel to the US.

IT's just sad to see that a company who's founder had such high ideals has sunk so low.

WOW ! how disgusting. American based companies always complain about third world sweat shop conditions & wages , and now they are importing those same laborers to work in the US #shame

Corporations get away with treating workers this way because the politicians who receive the lobbyists shilling allow them to.
It's the same with all the off-shoring of jobs to third world nations. The big corporatioins were already making a ton of money, but they become money junkies and there can never be enough profit, no matter what the long term consequences are for the sacked workers or the national economy. I have seen it happen to so many big corporations over the years. Highly profitable, workers all earning good wages, but the boardroom boys want even more profit - simple answer, move all the jobs overseas where labour costs are a fraction of what they pay domestic workers, real estate is cheap and health and safety almost non-existent. Large drinks all round for the boardroom boys at the club, to celebrate their higher saleries and bonuses, and of course the big shareholders on Wall Street who get another percentage point on their earings, but what about the people who lost their jobs to off-shoring? Why should they matter?

Like most things these days, it all comes down to money and pure greed!

reply to post by 547000

Socialism can only work on the back of slave labor, then. All you're doing is replacing private businesses with the collective. Don't you know what happens to the minority under the rule of the majority?

And where exactly did I say straight up socialism is the answer? I'm not playing that game friend. See, I'm not an uneducated moron, I see exactly what you have done there. You've taken my view that capitalism has failed, and immediately assumed I'm proposing a socialist solution. Nice try.

Yes, I'm Canadian. Regardless of what the media has told you about my country, our socialized medicine is the envy of most of the world. Certain aspects of socialism do indeed work and all you need to do is look at some of these "pinko socialist" nations and their location on the list of best health care, quality of life, education, you know, the stuff that doesn't matter.

Don't think for a second what Obama has in store is "socialism" it's anything but, in fact, you could aptly describe it as fascism. And really, when you take a hard look at our "capitalist" system, you find that it could also be classified as fascism.

See, I didn't realize that having an opinion meant I MUST have the answer as well. Look around you. How on earth could you say capitalism and the free market have worked? where are the indications of this?

The fact that the richest 1% have more wealth than the lower 99% combined?
The housing market fiasco that has created a generation of homeless middle class refugees?
The non-existent job market? Oh, there is capitalism at work right there, all your wonderful American jobs, outsourced to third world slave labor. How is that working out for you?
How about energy deregulation? Oh, did you forget? Did pesky 911 make you forget about Enron?

I honestly don't know the answer, but i think it lies somewhere in between socialism and capitalism. All I can say, and a large chunk of the world, in between setting cars on fire, agrees with me.

Capitalism, or whatever system we are living under now, has FAILED.

EPIC, double face palm, FAIL
--edit to add--
I'm sure I saw a video about a similar situation with a theme park, I'd want to say disney, but I think it was actually six flags? Anyways, it was a similar situation, poor outsourced workers come there and basically are slaves. If they want to leave, they have to pay the room and board which they would never be able to afford. I believe in some cases they were actually withholding visas or passports.

Something like this actually happened here in little old Fredericton, New Brunswick, Cannuckland. A local "mexican" restaurant hired a bunch of immigrant workers and took their passports and wouldn't give them back, it ended up going to court and such, not sure if the owner did any time, probably a tiny little fine.

See, this is the only way our current system works.

Plenty of people in the US need jobs. But, as americans, they have debt, and a standard of living expectation. These poor migrants and illegals don't. They do the jobs the rest of us don't want. The only reason our system works is because of cheap slave labor in the third world.

As these countries start to industrialize (China) these people will start expecting a piece of the pie too. Then who do we exploit? Mexicans? Who next?

We are running out of countries to exploit, but we aren't slowing down in our mass consuming culture at all, we are speeding up.

how old is your cell phone, right now. how long have you had that phone? how many phones did you have before that? When are you planning to upgrade?

When is the last time you went to a local farm and got your food their instead of from a truck or plane coming from south America? Do you know why your food is coming from there?

Because there are no standards enforced, so mass earth destroying factory farms dot the countryside. slowly, but surely, destroying that land. And since we eat record amounts of meat, most of these farms are cattle and pig farms, destroying the land around them for hundreds of years to come.

What happens, when that land becomes infertile, which it will, and polluted beyond use, which it will?

Oh, you think you'll go to the local farm then? guess what? All they grow is chickens and corn. Google it for yourself, American farms are basically only producing chickens and corn.

Beyond that, good luck finding workers to actually harvest, without those poor immigrants, crops die in the field. It happened HERE this season with a few crops. No one to pick em.

These Hershey workers are standing up for more than just their specific case, this should ignite the working class, the system can always be changed.

Amazing that how blatant some people in this thread are with your agenda. This has nothing to do with the tea party, it has all to do with how corporations have merged with government to strive for more profits.

I have seen people talk about capitalism - there hasn't been true capitalism in ages. Government sticks its nose into everything, and when you allow corporations to donate money to politicians - you allow corporations to dictate policy....it is a vicious cycle. This strategy is being used by current day unions as well.

As to the video, factory work, unskilled labor pay is at the low end - should be expected. Many people these days bust their butts and barely have anything to show for it - life sometimes sucks. Should have just taken the 4 grand and spent a couple weeks on vacation, visiting tourist locations.