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“There is no cultural exchange, none, none,” said Zhao Huijiao, a 20-year-old undergraduate in international relations from Dalian, China. “It is just work, work faster, work.”
Welcome to America, kids. You too, can live the American dream: $8.00 an hour, zero benefits, and yeah, work fast, faster, fastest because you're now doing the work of five people.
But before your American dream can come true you need to go to college, get about 5 years work experience, and then go apply for that eight dollar an hour job.
HA! Welcome to depression era labor. What the heck did they expect? Did they really think they were going to be paid a prevailing wage? The funny thing is, while they are striking, the company probably already has a temp agency rushing out a wagon of illegals just itching for a taste of the American dream. I've seen this stuff before. So excited to live the dream, and 2 weeks later, they start raising their voices and clucking away. A day later, someone else will take their place, and the cycle continues. I guess Hershey's wanted to play by the rules, so they experimented with a work exchange program. Kind of laughable to think they could pull it off though.
HA! Welcome to depression era labor. What the heck did they expect? Did they really think they were going to be paid a prevailing wage? The funny thing is, while they are striking, the company probably already has a temp agency rushing out a wagon of illegals just itching for a taste of the American dream. I've seen this stuff before. So excited to live the dream, and 2 weeks later, they start raising their voices and clucking away. A day later, someone else will take their place, and the cycle continues. I guess Hershey's wanted to play by the rules, so they experimented with a work exchange program. Kind of laughable to think they could pull it off though.
They save money on American workers because if you hire from the J-1 program, you don't have to pay Social Security taxes. Employer saves around 8%.
It's really comical that the students are from China, THE land of slave wage labor, where there is even a term for death from overwork (guolaosi)! If they cannot take it in an American factory, what do they expect in their own country? Geniuses.
They save money on American workers because if you hire from the J-1 program, you don't have to pay Social Security taxes. Employer saves around 8%.
It's really comical that the students are from China, THE land of slave wage labor, where there is even a term for death from overwork (guolaosi)! If they cannot take it in an American factory, what do they expect in their own country? Geniuses.
Yes, but it's hard to find an American worker willing to work hard for that kind of a wage that will do decent work, and rightfully so if you ask me. No one should have to starve for another man's profit. Companies can and will do better financially by hiring even more disadvantaged people than American's. There's a reason so many honest, small manufacturers went belly up over the last decade. The only way to solve the problem is for the government to crack down on this crap, but the government is too bloated and inefficient.
Well once again, reading the news means you have to not just swallow every word that's fed to you, but read between the lines and think for yourself.
For starters, the article's headline and body repeatedly refer to the protesters as students. They may indeed be students in their home countries, but they are not here to study. Using the term 'students' is deliberate to make their plight sound more sympathetic.
Second, as is stated, but buried far down in the story, is the fact that the issue largely lies with the organization that recruited them in China and other countries. It's no different than companies that organize visas of any kind. They very very often charge hefty fees that can easily outweigh the benefits. But no one is forced to use these companies. They are free to applly for a J-1 on their own. And they are certainly free to research travel expenses, living expenses, and wages before they applied, and do the math on their own, and determine how financially beneficial the program is.
Most people who apply for these jobs are looking for jobs at ski resorts (in winter) or lifeguard jobs at resorts and beaches, or amusement park concession jobs. The jobs pay crap but the workers usually get free unlimited lift passes or other perks, so for someone who wants to earn a little spending money while spending their days doing something they love anyway...it's not a bad deal. The problem here is, the protestors really didn't do their research and accepted a really crap gig. Hershey PA is in the middle of nowhere. There's no beaches to hang out at, it's not near any world-class cities for weekend trips. And since the jobs are in the factory and not at the hershey amusement park, there's not even any perks that really come with the job.
But none of this means that they have any legitimate grounds for complaint. Note that they are not complaining about being paid below minimum wage, or even being paid below the prevailing or living wage. They are not complaining of unsafe working conditions. They are just complaining that they came here on temporary work visa to work in a factory, and they actually have to do work....in a factory. One of the protesters even states outright that she is upset because the job isn't at all like what she's seen in movies. Well, that's hardly anyone's fault but her own. Life is never like it is in the movies, and it's not Hershey's fault or the visa organizer's fault or the State Department's fault that this girl was so naive.
They also complain about having to pay more in rent than their neighbors. Well guess what, if I rented a furnished apartment for just two months, and then left the country so the landlord had no chance of recouping damages I might leave behind, I'd pay a whole lot more than my neighbors too!
It's unfortunate that these people have learned a lesson about capitalism and democracy. Many of them come from places where housing and jobs are heavily orchistrated by the government. Now they know something about our country. Sure many of us have much more than the rest of the world but it didn't just fall into our laps. Most of us work extremely hard to get our lives.
Maybe we should be more generous with our J-1 visas--if more people knew what life is really like here, they'd be less prone to attempt to immigrate illegally.
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