Foreign Students Walk Off Hershey’s Factory Job In Protest

Yahoo News ^ | 8-18-2011 | Liz Goodwin

[packrat35]

We have around 25 million unemployed or under employed Americans and around 25 million illegals. Why in the hell are we still bring in more foreigners to work with special visas? This is flat out stupid by a country trying to kill itself.

[JSteff]

The students probably just wanted UNION healthcare and other benefits the UNION workers get.
That is the main problem Hershey is leaving PA... the unions are out regeouse with their demands for union wages and benefits for ALL union workers.

I live just outside of Hershey and remember the last rounds where the unin wanted to be the determiner of who works there and what they get paid.

High school kid who wants to push a broom or load boxes for $12 ab hour?
NO say the union, they get full Bennie's and the local insist they get full package.

Hershey does not run into the propblam outside of Hershey... so they leave.
The union is who procures union Job.

No signed up to the union???? NO JOB FOR YOU~!

[JSteff]

The students probably just wanted UNION healthcare and other benefits the UNION workers get.
That is the main problem Hershey is leaving PA... the unions are out regeouse with their demands for union wages and benefits for ALL union workers.

I live just outside of Hershey and remember the last rounds where the unin wanted to be the determiner of who works there and what they get paid.

High school kid who wants to push a broom or load boxes for $12 ab hour?
NO say the union, they get full Bennie's and the local insist they get full package.

Hershey does not run into the propblam outside of Hershey... so they leave.
The union is who procures union Job.

No signed up to the union???? NO JOB FOR YOU~!

[WVNan]

I’m glad I hate chocolate.

[jackieh]

I wish I hated chocolate!

[Doogle]

...I know ,I live about 8 miles from the Mars plant that does..*smiles*

[9YearLurker]

And what’s the unemployment rate of our own student-age population?

[CT-Freeper]

Perhaps there are some hungry, out-of-work Americans that would be very happy to have the employment.

Hershey's and the related companies are actually laying off their own employees in order to utilize this cheaper labor. They've laid off over 500 employees over the past few years and expect t layoff that many or more over the next year or so.

[Baynative]

Regardless of education, the process is the same.

*Get a job so you can learn how to show up, stay busy and please your boss
* If the job doesn't pay enough you learn what it takes to get promoted or find another job that pays more
* If finding another job that pays more is hard because of skills, you find a way to acquire the skills to land a better job

...and so it goes. But, for them who've never had a job or an interest in finding one the process never develops.

[Baynative]

2 word contest:

[Fresh Wind]

Unions are meddling in this situation. What a surprise!

[Vigilanteman]

. . . at the end of the day, it’s the employees who are bearing the loss of wealth that goes to pay those taxes.

So are you trying to say that employers who don't have to pay the tab for a J-1's social security, thereby reducing their costs by 8% or so, do not have an incentive to hire J-1's over locals?

I would disagree strongly because the employer's costs are thus reduced and he does NOT have to share that increase in wealth with the employee.

Some of the purists have accused me of socialist thinking for application of the realities of labor economics to real life.

They argue that open borders are a good thing because they reduce costs across the board which benefit everyone. Juan McCain is one of them who holds out the prospect of unaffordable lettuce in the grocery stores if we have to pay lettuce pickers $50 per hour.

That's an idiotic argument on at least three counts:

1. You would be able to attract quality lettuce pickers at considerably less than $50 per hour, either from locals, legitimate guest workers, invention of new technologies (like mechanical harvesting), more imported lettuce or whatever.
   
2. Labor makes up a tiny fraction of the cost of a head of lettuce. Supposing a slow harvesting pace of 5 heads a minute and McCain's pie-in-the sky wage of $50/hour, You would add about 17 cents per head of lettuce.
   
3. Finally-- and this is the key-- the open borders advocates never calculate the costs their policies impose on society at large. I shouldn't even have to list them. I will concede that since J-1's are specifically healthy young people from a variety of countries, the social service costs may be minimal. But I wouldn't care to calculate the resentment costs of young people who were promised an American cultural experience and were exploited in the manners described.

Years ago, my sister worked in Grand Canyon National Park in the summer. By the time that food and dorm fees were deducted, she ended up with a little less than minimum wage. She still considered it a great experience because the hours were reasonable as were the meals and dorm fees. Somehow, I don't thank that is the case here. Kids from the Ukraine do not come to America infused with the same bloated sense of entitlement as does your average Section 8 housing occupant. But I could be wrong . . .

[Katya]

My son has managed some of these kids who come over, mostly from the former Soviet Union. It’s a bit of a scam they run on them... they often put them in apartments in very run down and dangerous areas, or in very cramped seaside accomodations... the kids have no idea where they are staying, but quickly learn. It’s all done under the guise of a cultural exchange... but in the end the employers get extremely cheap summer help. These are not spoiled youngsters... they are used to having to scrape by, so if they had an issue with Hersey’s, I have a feeling it was because they were promised one thing, and as usual something else was delivered. Many of them are financing part of this trip/experience...
Why are we importing slavs? Because American kids don’t want to do the normal summer jobs anymore...particularly in the mid-Atlantic and eastern seabord. It’s much easier for these employers to import someone who they know will have to stay for the entire two months.
Why do you think girls take jobs as au pairs? It’s marketed to them as a cultural exchange. Many do this type of work before going to University. And many have a great time, but some unfortunately are taken advantage of.

[AwesomePossum]

Disgruntled foreigners working on an American candy company conveyor line.............think about that the next time you plan to buy M&Ms.............

8:}

[Oceander]

I am saying that the cost of whatever employment taxes an employer writes the check for is borne by the employee, not the employer.

On the more general point of hiring J-1s - I really don’t give a damn; I’m a free-marketer and get sick and tired of the lazy dolts who want to lock everything up so that God forbid someone who wasn’t graced by being born in the US wants to come to one of the few places where an individual can make a decent life for himself and his kin.

Obviously that isn’t these little J-1 twits, but nonetheless, the general point still stands: if you decide you’re going to cut these off because they’re supposedly taking jobs away from Americans (that is one of the oldest, and stupidest, canards in the book), then you’re just a socialist prostitute and the only thing left to discuss is your price.

[Vigilanteman]

I'm not advocating a ban on the hiring of foreign workers, be they J-1's, HB-1's or whatever. I'm simply advocating that employers not be given incentives to hire them over American workers by allowing them to pay lower wages, gain indentured servants or such.

If an imported worker is truly better that their American counterpart, they should be willing to pay a premium, not less.

This is how the system works in Japan-- you must pay the imported worker a slight premium over the average wage of a local (Japanese or permanent resident) worker. When I worked there, it only took slightly over one month to process my visa for precisely that reason: the government saw the company was willing to pay me a premium wage over my Japanese counterparts so as not likely bringing me in to save on what they normally paid.

The result was fewer, but much happier, foreign workers.