Hardly indentured servants; there is something to be said for paying attention to the details and knowing what you're getting into before you get there. I rather doubt if these folks were forced to work at this plant.
With respect to the claim that they weren't earning enough money to cover their travel expenses - so what? This wasn't an employment program, it was a cultural exchange/learning program, and students generally spend more money than they earn in, say, work-study programs.
That being said, factories shouldn't be allowed into the hiring base in a program like this in the first place - doing grunt shifts at an American factory is not exactly going to win the minds and hearts of foreign visitors. Reminds me a bit of an old, old Simpsons episode,
Crepes of Wrath, wherein Bart is sent to France as a foreign exchange student and ends up working as a drudge in a shady wine operation.
Hershey's chocolate, by the by, is much improved from what it was twenty years ago.
About 150,000 J-1 visas were given out in 2008. Businesses save about 8 percent by using a foreign worker because of Social Security and other taxes they do not have to pay.And right there is the gist of the problem. They can legally work them for 8% less than locals.
In Japan, foreign workers are much fewer in number (I was one of them) and actually grateful to the host country for the opportunities offered because companies have to pay them at least a 10% premium over what it pays to the locals.