JUSTICE at HERSHEY'S - A Letter to Hershey's CEO John Bilbrey

[glazierEd]

Last time I eat any candy from Hershey

[RemoteSwitch]

So we're importing commies now.

[clev9980]

I won't EVER buy ANY HERSHEY PRODUCTS AGAIN....your company treats workers like shit.

[loeningg]

ANONYMOUS STRIKE AT HERSHEY`S LIKE GOD`S WRAITH

[WHATISUTUBE]

@brainiacgames:I'll be honest; I dont give a shit about this argument anymore. But I will dispute one thing; ''crybabies'' like me did not make this nation degrade. There are many things wrong with this nation, like Americans working longer hours for less pay. Educational inflation, no more job security, how we seem to constantly be cutting taxes for corp.s at the expense of the middle and poor class and not getting out returns on that. But ''crybabies'' didnt detiriorate this nation.

[brainiacgames]

@WHATISUTUBE The hilarious part is that all those problems you list (except for the 'longer hours less pay' thing, which is provably false) are the result of attempts to socially engineer a Utopia. Educational inflation? Because we decided 'everyone should go to college'. Job security? You realize how many federal rules and requirements there are to have an employee? We have among the highest corp taxes in the world, and our 'poor class' has TVs and Xboxes. Hippie crybabies ruin everything.

[WHATISUTUBE]

@brainiacgames not false, actually. Wages have not kept up with inflation. As for our poor class, it IS America, which is why so many poor people from OTHER nations come HERE to be poor. Because poverty here is middle class elsewhere. A TV costs 300 bucks tops, and an xbox is 200 bucks. Don't act like these are grand luxuries that are hard to get. Next thing you're gonna tell me ''poor people even have FRIDGES in America; FRIDGES!''.And will you stop with the fucking name calling? Grow up.

[brainiacgames]

@WHATISUTUBE Wrong again. Wages and inflation have routinely swapped, most unsurprisingly in this huge recession. And you're laughable - being 'poor' here is middle class everywhere else, yet still we complain? Can the cheap Colbert routine, 'poor' people do not have Xboxes and plasma TVs. Our 'poor' are pampered people milking a system because of people like you who think no matter how far we spend ourselves into oblivion, it's NEVER ENOUGH. The war on poverty exacerbated poverty.

[brainiacgames]

Note that the same morons who respond with things like 'shame on Hersheys for expecting workers to lift a 30-lb box' generally vote for Democrats and back thuggish unions. And everyone wonders why nothing is made in the US anymore. Kids today refuse to break a sweat for their 'entitlements', and a bunch of braindead, one-foot-in-the-grave 60's hippies cheer them on while society crumbles.

[stupidcantbefixed]

@rxconstellation My concept of the difference between success and failure:

SUCCESS go to: wimp.com/wantsuccess/

FAILURE: Students at Hersheys

Seems like many here come from different mindset; maybe out of your own laziness. I have always chosen success for my path whereas, these students chose failure. And after you view the video of success I hope some of you might just get motivated to actually perform your job and be happy that you are employed.

[Quixoticah]

@stupidcantbefixed Your opinion is clear, but that doesn't make you right. Your link is about "success" and that has nothing to do with a large corporation duping students into captive labor. I agree with the video to some degree, but in the effort to be successful we can at least be civil. The mindset portrayed in that video is equal to wartime self-preservation and I challenge you to consider what life might be like if everyone actually acted that way - Waiting in line? Punch! Me first!

[stupidcantbefixed]

@rxconstellation Sorry, I can't provide excuses for their ignorance. You will need to ask them.

If you sign anything you should understand what you are signing or else pay the consequences for your ignorance. A valuable first lesson for an aspiring student to learn.

[stupidcantbefixed]

Do your homework & get ALL the facts before forming an opinion. All of these students signed contracts explaining to them EXACTLY what the job requirements and pay would be; these students were treated better than their American counterparts. People that don't want to move boxes in a chocolate factory for $8.10 an hour shouldn't sign contracts in? which they explicitly agree to move boxes in a chocolate factory for $8.10 an hour in exchange? for their J1 visa & did they say free room & board?

[rxconstellation]

@stupidcantbefixed I'm sure the contracts were offered to them in their native language to go over *sarcasm* Do you think they would have signed those contracts if they had an understanding of what they entailed? A contract like that would likely be full of legal terms that even a native English speaker would have trouble with.

[ssssaaafff]

Boycott all Hershey's products and their affiliates

[123qwerty]

This ain't a letter?!?!?!? This is a video!!!!

SO I THREW IT ON THE GROOOOOUUUNNNDDDDDD

[tstubbs1029]

There is a article from the NY times dated 24 Aug 2011 on this issue. Apparently the Department of Labor, State Department and OSHA are investigating. Guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

[tstubbs1029]

I would be pissed to pay money to goto a foriegn country for an experience and spend 8 to 10 hrs a day stacking 40 to 60 lb boxes. If they are here to learn something, they are not learning anything at Hershey. Well, I guess they are learning something and that is in a Democracy you have freedom of speech and a right to peacefully assemble. It is just to bad that it was a bad example and the local police took the side of Hersey and arrested people and not just asked them to get out of the street

[tstubbs1029]

I guess my question is, if the J-1 program is a State Department sponsored program. Where is the State Department and the Department of Labor and what is there position on this?

I'm not a fan of Labor Unions, but if this is what is accually going on, I would have to side with them on this. There lookded to be enough J-1 students in these videos to operated a shift or two.

[Yamigekido]

I will NOT support hershey's until this entire ordeal is fixed. I WILL NOT buy any of their products. Period!

[clev9980]

Boycott Hershey Chocolates....GREEDY BASTARDS !!!!!

[brainiacgames]

You people are so fucking retarded. Seriously. Have you listened to their actual complaints, not the BS dramatizing of them? They're mad because they were accepted in America for a warehouse job, and they had to pack and lift things. Poor babies! "My arms were tired! My back hurt! Waaah!!" And they weren't paid as much as people with more experience and time on the job than them! How awful! Get a life you fucking cause junkies. These kids are losers.

[SkyFoxCode]

@brainiacgames Trollfag

[WHATISUTUBE]

@brainiacgames It isn't about the pay. It's about the captive nature of it all. Threatening deportation if they walk off the job is incredibly serious. A similar, more drastic example would be pointing a gun to someones head and telling them to do A or they get a Bullet. Even entry level workers get more than these people were getting. But, like I've said in another video, I can see your point. But it leaves out some facts.

[brainiacgames]

@WHATISUTUBE Are you an idiot? Of course they're 'threatened with deportation' if they were brought into the country to DO A JOB and then don't want to DO THE JOB. Nobody is 'pointing a gun', they're doing light labor in a fucking chocolate factory for a chance to become a citizen of what used to be the greatest nation in the world, before crybabies like you got a hold of it and ruined it.

[Lyra1213]

@brainiacgames Did you see the other videos? Have you seen work done in a packing factory? It's not 'light labour'. A student mentioned lifting a 15 KG box. That's HALF OF MY WEIGHT! & none of those students look like they have the muscle to be lifting hundreds of those boxes each day. Greatest nation? BS. The US if full of greedy, manipulative a-holes like this, who will willingly exploit workers by going through whatever means, even sub-contracting many third-parties.

[brainiacgames]

@Lyra1213 You weigh 60 pounds? Really? Or can you just not do math, and you blindly repeated something that sounded terrible without bothering to check it? 15 KG is 33 pounds (hint: a good guess rule is 2lbs to a kilo). So your 'hero' foreign workers are getting teary because, working in a factory, they had to lift a box that weighs roughly the same as an average 2-year-old child. Aww. Call the cops. And if you don't like the US, FUCKING LEAVE. These kids paid to come here, how terrible we are.

[ratwind]

This is shameful exploitation by Hershey's. I will no longer buy their products and will post this on FaceBook. I am ashamed of this practice.

[SolarisTW]

And a petition: change.org/petitions/hershey-s­top-exploiting-student-guestwo­rkers GOOD LUCK! We're with you!

[navygolf98]

I hope Hershey hires twice or three times as many J1 exchange students next year as it did this summer just to show the local labor union that it isn't ok to exploit international students by using them as political props.

[TribeWantedGilligan]

I will be boycotting Hershey products which also include Reeses, 5th Avenue, Cadbury, Heath Bar, M&Ms, Milk Dud, Krackle, Kit Kat, Mr Goodbar, Oh Henry, Bubble Yum, Good & Plenty, Jolly Rancher, Payday, Twizzlers, Zagnut & Zero.

Share the list of Hershey products with others to encourage the boycott.

The ONLY thing these companies respect is money and the bottom line so hit them where it hurts - in their books.

[auki12]

important, we have serious economic problems in this country that need to be addressed by multimillion dollar companies. When Americans don't have jobs they will not buy your products.

[navygolf98]

@auki12 Are you saying that the J1 work and travel program should only exist when the U.S. economy is expanding? It isn't like these college students are high-paying jobs away from U.S. citizens (as this video shows).  It seems to me that international students should be able to come and experience what it is like to live and work in America during both good economic times and bad (also so that we can have the same privilege in their countries).

[hud01]

@navygolf98 I am sorry after reading your absurd comments, I can only say you are a moron who most likely works for Hershey's since you seem to possess above average knowledge of the programs Hershey runs.

[navygolf98]

@hud01 No, don't work for Hershey's and frankly couldn't care less about that company. But I'm a big fan of the J1 program (my wife handles logistical support for many of these kids--not much money but usually the time that the students have here is a landmark event in their lives). You say my comments are "absurd" but apparently don't question anything specific that I said....very easy to engage in name-calling; much harder to get the facts right, think, and form your own opinion.

[auki12]

@navygolf98 No I am not saying we should only have these jobs when America's economy is expanding, However, I have never seen the economy this bad in my lifetime and I am old :) 60. People will take anything to work, minimum wage or less, and try and work more than one job. People who previously were gainfully employed have lost their jobs and everything they've worked for. 7 dollars an hour might look pretty good to someone like that. I'm not against international student exchanges, but

[auki12]

@navygolf98 but really. we have to take care of our citizens now.

[auki12]

I think what is important here is that corporations and the government are trying to break unions, not pay a living wage and benefits, ship jobs overseas, and make millions more for their CEOs and companies. A good thing for Hershey to do for this country is what my husband's company Armstrong World Industries does, which is hire workers college age children for summer help for 10 dollars an hour. Everyone benefits, and overtime is available. While I think a cultural exchange program is ....

[lusciousdeath]

This is going on at McDonalds in Mississippi too.

[Eeykun]

@navygolf98 As a college student myself, I know that if I were an exchange student in another country for the purpose of learning and experiencing a different culture, I would be horrified to be forced into manual labor jobs that leave you too sore and tired to embrace it, and be threatened with deportation if I spoke to anyone about it. I can see how it would feel oppressive.

[navygolf98]

@Eeykun Yes, I recommend doing some more research b/f forming an opinion. I looked into it and it seems that what happened is that the local labor union decided to use these students as props, which I find much more exploitative than anything Hershey did. The key thing to understand is that the J1 work and travel program is exactly that: WORK and travel. It isn't like these students were told they would be taking English language classes all day; they knew what they were signing up for.

[hud01]

@navygolf98 Seems you are a Hershey's mouthpiece

[Eeykun]

@navygolf98 It seems I'll have to do more research before I can say anything else on the matter. But I want to clarify that my gripe isn't with minimum wage jobs, but that these students had that combined with everything else in their situation, and that Hershey doesn't seem to be dealing with the situation in a way that helps anyone.

[TchrReinvented]

I wonder if the kids are having fun protesting because it's something they can not do in their countries... I wonder what Hershey's side of it is... "WORK" may or may not be a four letter word. It depends on how it is approached from the beginning... willingly with gratitude?

[Eeykun]

@navygolf98 That's true, it is a part of culture. But where is the $3-6000 that they paid going? Not to their housing apparently, since it's being deducted from their wages. If you saw their other video, you know that Hershey has laid off 200 american workers and their profit has gone up. They are scamming these students for profit, and us saying that it's okay because they get the same min. wage as Americans get, then we're saying it's okay to exploit as long as it's equally done to everyone.

[navygolf98]

@Eeykun The $1.5-$3k they paid covers their health insurance, travel to/from the U.S., and usually some sort of sponsorship fee paid to the agency that helps them find a job in the United States so that they can participate in the program. $6k is very steep...the only way that could be right is if they were (a) ripped off, or (b) exchange rates. But it wasn't Hershey that might have ripped them off; it was the sponsor that set them up with Hershey. I'm very skeptical of that number, though.

[navygolf98]

@Eeykun wrt Hershey laying off American workers, I promise you that Hershey wasn't laying off Americans to hire J1 students in their place. Hershey has been hosting J1's for a very long time and actually has a reputation for being one of the most sought-after employers in the J1 program (partly because they have housing for the students, and also because amusement park jobs are better liked by the students). But Hershey isn't scamming anyone; I think the labor unions put the kids up this.

[navygolf98]

@Eeykun finally, it seems like your real gripe isn't with Hershey or with the J1 program, but with the fact that there are minimum-wage level jobs in the United States at all. Yes, it would be wonderful if we could create a perfect world where a CEO makes no more than 10 or 20 times the lowest-wage employee and everyone is employed. But the fact that such a world doesn't exist yet doesn't mean that students from around the world shouldn't have the chance to experience what most Americans do.

[Eeykun]

It's a cultural exchange program. Cultural. Exchange. It isn't about whether the students making as little as other people, it's about the fact that Hersheys is gaining super cheap manual labor and thousands of dollars from college students by calling it a cultural exchange program when it's really exploitative captive labor, and now they refuse to acknowledge that. If Hershey didn't "break any rules," then their rules need some serious revision.

[navygolf98]

@Eeykun isn't working part a "culture"? Why wouldn't work be part of a cultural exchange program? If the idea behind the program is to give international students an idea of what it is like to live and work as Americans do, how are you going to accomplish that by affording them treatment different from their American counterparts? The rules of the J1 program are pretty simple: you can't pay international students less than their American counterparts. That rule was followed here.

[RoninDave]

@Eeykun don't tell that to some of the conservatives here who don't understand the concept of culture much less cultural exchange. They seem to be content for foreign students to be used as cheap labor while Americans continue to go unemployed.

[FrankeeFraud]

If these shitheaded losers are against Hersheys, then I'm in FAVOR of Hersheys! Haven't got much of a sweet tooth, but I plan to buy a ton of Hershey products today.What a bunch of losers with no lives. Will be making minimum wage till the day they die. Go Hersheys!

[gabrielleballou]

There is nothing illegal about getting paid more then minimum wage. I make less then these fucks do over a course of a month, because after bills, I have about -$250~. These kids are just selfish lazy assholes who were stupid enough to pay $5000 when a ticket to germany from america is only about $500-$600, and visa fee's and all that, about a $1000 would have done them more than good. They are all pretty stupid for being college students, considering they read the terms and conditions, or not.

[sylph66]

This is hard to believe that Hershey would be practicing illegal employment policies, such as retaliation, illegal workers, etc., this is a bad sign given all of the protections that Bush Administration cut loose that could possibly make this legal. We Americans need to be more alert about what we are giving the green light for in this country.

[navygolf98]

@sylph66 The reason it is hard to believe is because these students weren't actually exploited in the manner this video is trying to depict. The J1 visa is a simple contract: the students agree to work for a U.S. employer (almost always at a minimum-wage job or something close to it), and in exchange get to live and work here for 3-4 months. If the students walk out, they have broken their end of the agreement and the visa is revoked. There is no indication here that Hershey broke any rules.

[FlintPublic]

Solidarity!

[navygolf98]

What is truly sad is that it appears labor unions have determined to use these international students as props to push their own short-sighted agenda. Somehow I have a hard time believing these students thought of it themselves to start using words like "living wage" in a spot on Youtube. The J1 program not only gives opportunities for international students to work in the U.S.; it also provides opportunities for Americans to live and work abroad as well.

[navygolf98]

Hershey's response is very simple: you know what the minimum wage is in China? In Tianjin's labor bureau, the minimum wage is $160 per month. These U.S. J1 students were paid approximately 8 times what they would have been paid to perform similar work their home countries, and given the opportunity to travel in the United States. I promise you, EVERY one of these students was aware that they would be working for Hershey in this capacity before they accepted this deal.

[RedDonnaAnn]

God bless the US Constitution that allows protesting and the making of videos like this. These kids will all go home knowing first hand what Democracy in action is and how it can affect change.

These kids were hired when they were supposed to be cultural exchange students, denying Americans jobs and opportunity.

I'll be very interested in hearing Hershey's response.

[larryraiken]

I am not letting my daughters buy Hershey chocolate. There are many other chocolate companies. Shame on you! Shame on you! If you need work done , hire American workers, and pay them a livable wage. Shame, shame, shame. Pay back the students their initial money, and at least triple what they paid for what you did to them. It is time for fairness to reign. And it will.

[FAA4Life666]

@larryraiken Uh.. Name one (candy) company that DOESN'T thrive off of cheap labor AND that you eat?....

Ouch...sorry, and don't say you make your own because that sugar/flour you use...you get the idea.

Isolationism breeds ignorance.

[macrochronic]

hershy. really ?screw hershy, boycott time

[QCOJONES]

@ russell56443. Totally agree. I'm not buying Hershey again.

[russell56443]

This is unreal and we need to botcot