Hurting America and human rights

Plus, in MY experience, it's illegal for foreign exchange students to
work when they're here, like is often the case for foreign college
students who are here on student visas.

Hundreds of foreign exchange students paid to come to America this
summer, expecting opportunities to learn English and experience
American culture.

Instead, the exchange students found themselves forced to work in
back-breaking, round-the-clock production lines packing chocolates at
a Hershey's plant in Pennsylvania at low wages. When the students
complained, Hershey's threatened to have them deported.

Now the exchange students are fighting back. They just walked out of
the Hershey's plant and into the streets to protest the abusive
conditions and to demand big changes to Hershey's deceptive "cultural
exchange" program.

And they've teamed up with the National Guestworker Alliance to start
a petition demanding that Hershey's compensate the exchange students,
and turn their work into good jobs for local workers. Click here to
add your name.

Yana, a 19-year-old girl from Ukraine, lifts boxes that weigh 40
pounds -- nearly half her weight. Peng, a 21-year-old economics
student from China, also lifts heavy boxes during his eight-hour
shifts at the warehouse.

Hundreds of students from Ghana, Turkey, Mongolia, and other countries
each paid up to $6,000 for the privilege to come to America in a
cultural exchange program this summer. Now Hershey's pays them around
$8 an hour for their warehouse work, minus costs of housing -- leaving
many students broke, tired, and disillusioned.

Why would Hershey's want to use foreign exchange students as cheap,
manual labor? According to the National Guestworker Alliance, a group
helping the students, it's about profit. Hershey's is laying off 500
American workers in the next year. The company's strategy is
apparently paying off: Hershey's pocketed $130 million in just the
last three months.

The foreign exchange students are asking Hershey to refund the
thousands of dollars the students paid to come to America. And that's
not all: The students also want Hershey's to convert their low-paying
positions to living wage jobs for local residents in Pennsylvania.

Please sign the petition to Hershey's demanding the company refund the
students' costs to come to America and give their jobs back to
American workers who live near the warehouse.

http://www.change.org/petitions/hershey-stop-exploiting-student-guestw
orkers

Thanks for being a change-maker,