Sunday, August 28, 2011

Hershey's Indentured Servants


The deplorable conditions and slavery inflicted on child laborers by some cocoa producers is well known.  Unfortunately, it looks like Hershey's is getting in on the act in its own way with foreign laborers in Pennsylvania.

From Eater...
The Department of Labor and the State Department are both investigating a Pennsylvania chocolate packing plant for Hershey's after hundreds of foreign exchange students walked out on summer jobs last week. The students claim they were held to strenuous work hours and low pay. The wages weren't nearly enough to pay back the money — as much as $6,000 — most of them had paid to acquire their work visas.

The J-1 visas the tourists used were supposed to allow them into the US to work for a few months and then travel around the country for a month, which, not surprisingly, they also couldn't afford.

They say the chocolate makers threatened them with deportation when they complained about the situation.

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