From DELAWARE COUNTY TIMES:
…News recently filtered out that the company that makes some of the world’s tastiest treats exploited about 400 foreign students who came to work at the company’s Palmyra, Pa., packaging plant…
The students work for a warehouse run by Exel, a logistics company hired by Hershey Co. Some 120,000 foreign students come to the U.S. on J-1 visas every year. The students, who come from places like Turkey, China, Ukraine and Nigeria, work for several months and then can travel in the United States for a month as tourists.
What Hershey Co. didn’t tell the foreign youngsters was that they would work on fast-moving assembly lines, packing and lifting 50-pound boxes of sweets, many times on the overnight shift. Worst of all, the wages these youngsters received were so low they weren’t earning enough to pay back their expenses…
Click here to read the full article.
The foreign exchange students should thank Hershey’s for a great lesson on capitalism! They probably get the best 8 weeks education of their lives.
I had lots of jobs worse than packing cartons when I was a college student and I am a better person for it. Too many people today haven’t got a clue what adversity is (including half my own family) and I hate to imagine what will happen to them if they ever encounter it.
I’d like to think these kids are taking jobs away from our own college students, but sadly, I know our own students wouldn’t do such boring, exhausting work. Someday though, they may wish they had.
Hershey Co. also has life insurance policies on their employees, without the knowledge or consent of the employee. The money from the policy is claimed by Hershey Co. who is named beneficiary. This practice is not limited to Hershey Co. and is known as the “dead peasant” policy.
After reading this article concerning the foreign students plight, Hershey has a bitter taste to me.