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Hershey: Stop Exploiting Student Guestworkers
  1. Signatures
    71,991 out of 100,000
    Petitioning
    1. The Hershey Company (+ 1 other)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The Hershey Company (Kirk Saville)
      • The Hershey Company (John Bilbrey)
  2. Created By
    National Guestworker Alliance
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

Feb 03, 2012

Signaling a sharp change of course in the country's largest international cultural exchange program, the State Department has banned a leading sponsor company from bringing foreign students to the United States for summer jobs and will add new restrictions to protect students from labor abuse, officials said Wednesday.

The removal of the sponsor, the Council for Educational Travel, USA, was intended to send a powerful message to dozens of private companies participating in the State Department's summer work program that they will have to monitor foreign students far more closely and ensure that participants are not exploited as cheap workers by employers.

The council, which is known as Cetusa, has been one of the biggest sponsors in the summer program and was responsible for placing about 400 foreign students last summer in a Pennsylvania plant packing Hershey's chocolates. In August, hundreds of those program participants staged a boisterous walkout from the plant to protest low pay and dangerous job conditions.

 

"I hope this sends a clear message to other recruiters like Cetusa, that we will not be your captive workers," said Harika Duygu Ozer, a medical student who spoke via Skype on Wednesday from Istanbul.

 

On August 17, hundreds of student guestworkers from around the world were joined by unemployed U.S. workers and labor leaders in a factory sit-in at the Hershey Chocolate Company packing plant in Pennsylvania.

The students paid $3,000-$6,000 each to come to the U.S. this summer for what they thought would be a cultural exchange program. Instead, they found themselves packing chocolates at the Hershey's plant in deeply exploitative conditions.

Their demands: end the exploitation of student workers at the Hershey's plant, return the money they paid for a cultural exchange, and make these jobs living wage jobs for local Pennsylvania workers.

 

Their story: youtube.com/watch?v=8-h8EBP0JSs

Their open letter to Hershey's CEO: youtube.com/watch?v=Q1WaubnAR2o

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Stop Exploiting Student Guestworkers

Greetings,

I stand with the hundreds of student guestworkers from around the world, U.S. workers, and labor leaders calling for justice at the Hershey's Chocolate Company packing plant in Pennsylvania.

These students paid $3,000-$6,000 each to come to the U.S. this summer for what they thought would be a cultural exchange program. Instead, they found themselves packing chocolates at the Hershey's plant in deeply exploitative conditions.

The student guestworkers aren’t the only ones who have suffered. If Hershey hadn't chosen to subcontract to have its chocolates packed by exploitable guestworkers, 400 workers in Central Pennsylvania could have had living wage, union jobs.

I demand you immediately end the exploitation of student workers at the Hershey's plant, return the money that the student workers paid for a cultural exchange, and make these living wage jobs for local Pennsylvania workers.

[Your name]

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