Student Guest Workers in Hershey, PA STRIKE!!!

Join striking student guest workers to demand that Hershey, who they pack chocolates for, agrees to stop exploiting student guest workers and undermining the well being of Central Pennsylvanians. 

Tomorrow August 19

Pittsburg: 12:30pm at Market Square

Philadelphia: 2pm 6th and Market

Students went on strike yesterday after a factory sit-in and with the organizing support of the National Guest Worker Alliance.  Their actions temporarily shut down production for Hershey's chocolate.  The students from across the globe, came here with J-1 visas and were promised a cultural exchange.  Instead they were put to work far below the $18-20 an hour living wage fought for by the local Chocolate Workers Union, Local 464.  They were also charged up to $400 each for housing -- packed up to 12 people in one apartment -- as well as charged for rides to and from work.   Students have been subjected to disrespect and abuse on the job and told by management that they could either shut up or ship out.  Instead they organized and fought back.

Yesterday nearly 300 workers, many who walked off the job, gathered to demand that Hershey return the $3,000-$6,000 that each student paid to come to this country, fire the company that recruited and lied to students, and Hershey give the 400 jobs that they occupy to Pennsylvania workers in desperate need of work.  

Union leaders with SEIU, AFL-CIO and state public workers were arrested after the factory refused them entrance in to the packing plant to support the striking students.  

Diane Carroll with the Chocolate Workers Union, Local 464 says "This to me is corporate America at its worst, not the average American, not the average American worker." 

Read this New York Times report on the strike: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/us/18immig.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hpw

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