From the Inquirer
“…The 375 students came to the United States from Ghana, Moldova, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine under a State Department J-1 visa program that allows them to work for several months. Each was to be paid between $3,000 and $6,000, but that’s money they are afraid they will never see.
“The students say they were offered low wages to perform manual labor, lifting 50-pound boxes in the Hershey warehouse in Lebanon County. The students made $8.35 an hour. But after they paid grossly inflated housing costs and other fees, they netted $40 to $140 per week. How ironic that the students worked so close to the Milton Hershey School, the richest residential school for poor children in the country.
“It appears that the cultural-exchange students were trapped in a tangled web of outsourcing and bureaucracy at its worst.”
Click here to read the full article.
EDITOR: This is a disgrace to the Hershey heritage, to Central Pennsylvania, and to our nation. It is up to Hershey Corporation to make amends even if the perpetrators are subcontractors.
The Hershey name and tradition is to be treasured. We in Lancaster especially recognize the pain of having our proudest institution dragged in the mud.
