Hershey's use of visa students draws protests

"Hershey, Hershey, can't you see," the protesters sang, "what justice means to me?"

Led by a man wearing a silver hoopskirt on his head with chains draped over his shoulder (an enslaved Hershey's Kiss), some 30 Philadelphians protested at Sixth and Market Streets on Friday, championing the cause of some 375 J-1 visa students working at a Hershey warehouse in Palmyra, Lebanon County.

Backed by National Guestworker Alliance and union leaders, the students say they were misled about the exchange program. Instead of cultural exchange, they have been lifting 50-pound boxes every minute from a conveyor belt for eight hours a day.

The NGA wrote to the U.S. State Department demanding the Council for Education Travel U.S.A. be removed as a J-1 visa-sponsoring organization. It said CETUSA violated the stipulations of the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program by placing students with employers that violate Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act.

"Several kids said that they were misled," said Rick Anaya, CEO of CETUSA, "and that is not true. Every student had signed this job offer, and they knew exactly what they were getting into." Anaya added that he had offered the students another job upon hearing their complaints, but said only 10 students took the offer.

Labor and international law experts from five universities began an independent investigation Friday, as students protested here and in Pittsburgh, New York City, and Chicago.

In addition to revoking CETUSA as a sponsor, the students want their jobs returned to Americans who were laid off because of cheaper laborers like themselves.