Foreign students on J-1 visa protest Hershey’s factory jobs

Hundreds of foreign students on a State Department J-1 cultural exchange visa program walked off their factory jobs in protest recently.

The J-1 visa program brings foreign students to the country to work for two months and learn English, and was designed in part to fill seasonal tourism jobs at resorts and seaside towns. The 400 students employed at a Pennsylvania factory that packages Hershey's candies make $8.35 an hour, but their rent and program fees are deducted from their paychecks, leaving them with less money than they spent to get the visas and travel to the country in the first place.

Some of the students were assigned night shifts, and said they were pressured to work faster and faster on the factory lines.

Hershey's said they didn't hire the students.  The students were placed in their jobs through a staffing company and Hershey’s does not directly operate the packing plant.

Federal immigration officials are also investigating two human-trafficking abuse cases related to J-1 visas. Strip clubs openly solicited J-1 visa holders in job listings, and some foreign students said they were forced into sexual slavery when their passports were confiscated by a ring of criminals. 

About 150,000 J-1 visas were given out in 2008. Businesses save about 8 percent by using a foreign worker because of Social Security and other taxes they do not have to pay.

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