Report from Hershey's Shareholder meeting

Yesterday, meeting behind locked doors, rows of metal barriers, and armed guards, Hershey’s shareholders heard that the chocolate giant had made more than $1 billion in profits globally in 2011.

They also learned from the 99% that Hershey’s has gone from an iconic American brand to an icon of corporate greed.

More than 100 Pennsylvanians marched on Hershey’s shareholder meeting under the banner of the 99% coalition—ordinary people who have united to build an economy and a democracy that works for all of us, not just for the 1%. All around the country this spring, members of the 99% are challenging 1% board members and executives who have expanded inequality, threatened democracy, destroyed our environment, and put profit ahead of the survival of families and communities.

Pennsylvanians from the 99% entered the Hershey’s shareholder meeting and held management’s feet to the fire for destroying hundreds of permanent, living-wage jobs and subcontracting to replace them with temporary, sub-minimum wage jobs for exploitable guestworkers. They challenged Hershey's use of child labor in Africa, and illegal discrimination by the Milton Hershey School against a 13-year-old HIV-positive boy.

Outside, joined by labor, civil, and human rights leaders from NGA, SEIU, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Pennsylvanians marched and delivered powerful testimonies about their fight against the depths of Hershey’s greed.

Our demands to Hershey’s:

1. create dignified, living wage jobs for local workers;
2. sign the NGA's Worker Dignity Protocols to end exploitation of guestworkers; and
3. pledge an immediate end to discriminatory practices and abuses that affect children at both the Hershey School and the Hershey family of companies.

Local public radio interviewed Mitch Troutman, an NGA organizer and lifelong Central Pennsylvanian who’s holding down three jobs to make ends meet:

“Last year, this company brought 400 workers here to pay them next to nothing so they didn't have to pay local workers. We don't want that to happen again, and we're here to say we're not going away, we're going to be watching you."

Thank you for all you’ve contributed to this fight!

In solidarity,

Saket Soni

Executive Director

National Guestworker Alliance

Protestors to March on Hershey’s Shareholder Meeting

Over 100 community, labor, human rights leaders decry Hershey’s greed at May 1 meeting

HARRISBURG, PA—On May 1, 2012, over 100 community, labor, and human rights leaders will march on Hershey's annual shareholder meeting to condemn the company as an icon of corporate greed. The march—led by the National Guestworker Alliance, SEIU, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation—is one of a nationwide series of nonviolent direct actions against corporate greed this spring under the banner of 99% Power.

Last summer, hundreds of student guestworkers escaped captive labor at the Hershey's chocolate packing plant. They exposed the depth of Hershey's corporate greed: how the company destroyed hundreds of permanent, living-wage jobs and subcontracted to replace them with temporary, sub-minimum wage jobs for exploitable guestworkers.

While the student guestworkers exposed Hershey's labor abuses, human rights groups exposed Hershey's use of child labor in Africa, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation exposed illegal discrimination by the Milton Hershey School against a 13-year-old HIV-positive boy.

“Hershey's used to be iconic American brand. But the company’s violation of the most basic labor, civil, and human rights—from Central Pennsylvania to Central Africa—have turned it into an icon of corporate greed,” said NGA Lead Organizer Jacob Horwitz.

“Ordinary Pennsylvanians are joining with national leaders to demand that Hershey’s abandon the low road of greed and exploitation, and take the high road of true corporate social responsibility,” Horwitz said.

The leader’s demands are that Hershey's:

1.     create dignified, living wage jobs for local workers;

2.     sign the NGA's Worker Dignity Protocols to end exploitation of guestworkers; and

3.     pledge an immediate end to discriminatory practices and abuses that affect children at both the Hershey School and the Hershey family of companies.

The march takes place amid a wave of grassroots protests by the 99% Power coalition, which are converging on the shareholder meetings of America's greediest, most destructive corporations, including Hershey's, Walmart, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

WHAT: March on Hershey’s shareholder meeting

WHO: Over 100 community, labor, and civil rights leaders

WHEN: May 1, 2012, 9:30 a.m. ET

WHERE: Intersection of Park Blvd/Route 39 & Boathouse Rd in Hershey, PA, marching to Giant Center, 550 Hersheypark Dr.

CONTACTS: Stephen Boykewich, stephen@guestworkeralliance.org, 718-791-9162

Mitchell Troutman, mitchell.troutman@gmail.com, 570-483-8824

Statement online at http://www.guestworkeralliance.org/2012/04/protestors-to-march-on-hersheys-shareholder-meeting/

1,000 march in PA against Hershey’s corporate greed, for good jobs

Marchers defy thunderstorm, police helicopter at rally for justice and living wage jobs

Hershey, PA, Sep. 23, 2011—Today, after six weeks of mounting national pressure on Hershey’s for exploiting J-1 student workers and depriving local workers of living wage jobs, former student workers at the Hershey’s packing plant and working people from PA held a 1,000-strong march in Hershey for justice and jobs. (Video, photos)

Under pouring rain and with a police helicopter circling overhead, dozens of students marched up Chocolate Avenue with the head of a column of 1,000 supporters from the AFL-CIO and SEIU. The crowd bore signs reading “Justice at Hershey’s” and “Exploitation Is Wrong in Any Language,” and chanted, “Hey Hershey’s, can’t you see / What good jobs mean to me?”

“I paid $3,000 to become a captive worker at the Hershey’s packing plant. They threatened me with deportation if I didn’t work fast enough. Is this the real America?” Hershey’s J-1 student worker Malwina Siegien told the crowd, drawing a shout of, “No!”

“Hershey’s held us in its factory, but you let us into our homes. Hershey’s refused to speak with us, but over 1,000 American workers are marching with us today. You are the real America,” Siegien said. “This fight is not over!”

SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry said, “These students came to America to learn about our country, but instead they taught us all what it means to take a stand against injustice. They are heroes to us all. It’s time for Hershey's to treat these students with dignity and do right by the community they’ve called home for over a century by bringing good jobs back to central Pennsylvania.”

The students—who paid $3,000-6,000 each to come to the U.S. for a cultural exchange and instead became captive labors in the Hershey’s packing plant—organized and became members of the National Guestworker Alliance. With support from Central PA residents and organized labor, the students held a sit-down strike and walkout from the Hershey’s plant on Aug. 17.

Said National Guestworker Alliance executive director Saket Soni, “On Aug 17, hundreds of workers conducted a sit-down strike in the Hershey’s packing plant. Why did they do it? Because they believe in an America based on people not profit. They believe in an America based on human need, not corporate greed. And we are asking Hershey to show us that America.”

Other rally speakers included AFL-CIO PA state president Rick Bloomingdale and SEIU Healthcare PA president Neil Bisno, both of whom were arrested during an act of civil disobedience outside the Hershey’s packing plant on Aug. 17 in support of the student’s strike.

“Hershey’s has hunkered down in their corporate headquarters in the hopes this would all blow over when the students were home, but it is so important to keep this fight alive,” Bloomingdale said. “Now we see how Hershey’s acts when workers don’t have the protection of a union—they go right back to the old corporate town concept of a hundred years ago. We will not stand for it.”

Four federal agencies launched investigations into the exploitation of J-1 student workers at the Hershey’s plant, and nearly 70,000 Americans signed a petition in support of the students’ demands: 1) return the $3,000-6,000 students paid for false promises of a cultural exchange, and 2) turn the 400 jobs they filled in the Hershey’s packing plant into living wage jobs for local workers.

Hershey’s has maintained a wall of silence, hoping that when the students returned to their home countries at the end of the summer, the pressure would end. Instead, Friday’s 1,000-strong march demonstrated that the students’ solidarity with local workers has inspired a local fight for living wage jobs that won’t go away.

On the eve of the march, Hershey’s launched a PR campaign to attempt to discredit the students, and hired Blank Rome Government Relations to lobby Congress on “government affairs issues related to labor practices.”

The Hershey’s story goes to the heart of the current debate over the sources of America's jobs crisis. Decades of downsizing, outsourcing, and subcontracting by corporations like Hershey’s has robbed local workers of living wage jobs, while locking immigrant workers—and even cultural exchange students on J-1 visas—into situations of captive labor.

After students trigger four federal investigations into exploitation at Hershey’s plant, Hershey’s offers students paid vacations

HERSHEY, PA, August 24, 2011—Just hours after four federal government agencies launched investigations into the exploitation of J-1 student workers in the Hershey’s packing plant—including a surprise inspection of the plant Tuesday by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—Hershey’s directed its subcontractors to offer the students paid vacations.

Early morning Tuesday, OSHA began a surprise inspection of the Hershey’s packing plant in Palmyra, which it continued all day Tuesday and was set to resume Wednesday morning. OSHA also confirmed Tuesday that it had opened a Whistleblower Protection Program investigation into the case.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division launched its own investigation into the exploitation of J-1 student workers at the Hershey’s plant, and the U.S. State Department scheduled interviews with the students for Thursday, August 25, as part of its own investigation.

Hours after learning of the four investigations, Hershey’s abandoned its claims that it bore no responsibility for the exploitation of J-1 students at its packing plant, and directed its subcontractors to offer the students paid vacations.

Hershey’s offer to the students comes one day before State Department officials were scheduled to interview students about the months of exploitation at the Hershey’s plant that the students spoke out to end.

“For five full days after the students exposed the exploitation at the Hershey’s packing plant and stood up for American workers, Hershey’s played dumb and passed the buck,” said Saket Soni, executive director of the National Guestworker Alliance, which helped the students organize. “Then Hershey's learned of four federal investigations into the exploitation of J-1 students at its plant, and within hours, it was offering the students paid vacations.”

“There’s nothing wrong with paid vacations, but a paid vacation won’t cover up the truth: Hershey’s knew, condoned, and benefited from the year-round exploitation of J-1 student workers at its packing plant for years,” Soni said.

“Pennsylvanians know that Hershey’s has pursued a deliberate strategy of outsourcing, downsizing, and subcontracting for the cheapest, most exploitable workers for decades,” Soni said. “Hershey’s has left Pennsylvania workers locked out of living wage jobs, and has left students on a cultural exchange program locked in their plant as captive laborers. That’s Hershey’s record of brutal corporate greed, and no eleventh-hour offer can cover it up.”

CONTACT: NGA Communications Director Stephen Boykewich

Stephen@guestworkeralliance.org, Tel. 718-791-9162

Not so sweet: Hershey’s exploits student workers to avoid paying living wages in Pennsylvania

Godwin is a Nigerian student who heard about a great opportunity to learn about American culture and hone his English skills in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He was excited when he learned he was accepted to part of a special U.S. State Department approved visa program designed to promote cultural exchange and international understanding. He was so thrilled that he would be meeting American people as a guestworker with the Hershey Company that he was willing to pay $4,000 to be part of the program.

Once he arrived in Hershey, his excitement quickly faded as he found himself forced to work long hours packing chocolates instead of working in a public position. Godwin, and hundreds of other international students, found that they not only had to work long hours, but Hershey forced them to live in company housing, after paying $3,000-6,000 for the “opportunity” to work for Hershey. Hershey also charged them other expenses, leaving most of the students with $40 to $140 per week after 40 hours of work with serious health and safety problems at the worksite. (You can see a video of their story here.)

When they complained about their working conditions, the students were threatened with deportation.

But Hershey’s exploitation doesn’t end with the students. Jobs like these used to be living wage jobs with a union contract, earning about $18 an hour.

The students understand that they are being exploited, and they understand that they are being used to hurt working families in the United States. Today, they are courageously risking deportation to stand up for themselves and American workers by organizing a sit down strike inside the plant. They were joined in the sit down strike by community, religious and labor leaders, three of him were arrested.

They have two simple demands:

1) Hershey Company must return the $3000-$6000 that the student-workers paid to participate in a bogus cultural exchange program;

2) Hershey must make these jobs living wage jobs for Pennsylvania workers.

It takes a lot of courage to stand up to an employer who legally controls every aspect of your life. We need you to help the students in their efforts to expose this fraudulent program and get justice for themselves and American workers.

Please send a message to Hershey’s CEO in support of the students by clicking here. Join the brave international students in their fight against this injustice.

You can learn more by clicking here.

In Solidarity,

Michael Morrill
Keystone Progress