Foreign students walk off Hershey’s factory job in protest Hundreds of foreign students on a State Department cultural exchange visa program walked off their factory jobs in protest on Wednesday. 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 makes Hershey's candies told The New York Times that even though they make $8.35 an hour, 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 when the Times asked: A spokesman for Hershey's, Kirk Saville, said the chocolate company did not directly operate the Palmyra packing plant, which is managed by a company called Exel. A spokeswoman for Exel said it had found the student workers through another staffing company. Last December, the AP revealed that federal immigration officials were 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 told the AP 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. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...ff-hershey-factory-job-protest-214310205.html
You know Hershey is saving plenty by having Palmyra operate the plant. Not only don't they have to pay Social Security and other taxes, they don't have to pay any benefits. The government allows them to get away with this crap.
Poor babies...maybe next time they can get a job in a Chinese factory. Send em' home. They knew exactly what the pay would be and what the job entailed before they took it.
Democrats help Chinese energy firm chase stimulus money By Russ Choma Investigative Reporting Workshop, American University updated 12/9/2010 8:25:49 AM ET WASHINGTON — Top Democratic fundraisers and lobbyists with links to the White House are behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stands to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a Chinese company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China. The farm’s backers also have close ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who, at the height of his hard-fought re-election bid this fall, helped blunt congressional criticism over stimulus dollars possibly going to create jobs in China by endorsing a proposal by the Chinese company to build a factory in his home state. Although his campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from the wind farm’s backers and Reid stood on stage with them at a campaign event they hosted, his office declined to answer any questions about the wind farm’s organizers or their plans for Nevada. The wind farm, first announced more than a year ago, would consist of 300 2-megawatt wind turbines, each perched atop a 26-story-tall steel tower and spinning three blades — each half the length of a football field. The farm would span three counties and 36,000 acres in West Texas land best known for its oil. Dubbed the Spinning Star wind farm, the project’s 600-megawatt capacity is, theoretically, enough to power 180,000 American homes and would be the sixth-largest wind farm in the country. It is being planned by an unusual joint partnership between the U.S. Renewable Energy Group, a Dallas investment firm with strong ties to Washington and the Democratic Party, and A-Power Energy Generation Systems, an upstart Chinese supplier of wind turbines. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate the Chinese are bringing financing and the turbines. What the Americans are supplying is the local know-how and political clout in Washington, where decisions on how to distribute billions in loan guarantees, stimulus grants and financial incentives are made. Story: Reid's 'Net betting bill would benefit his casino backers The clock is ticking for Spinning Star: To claim the stimulus grant it must arrange its financing and begin work on the wind farm by Dec. 31. Besides the $450 million stimulus grant, A-Power’s SEC filings indicate the joint-venture also will pursue a Department of Energy-backed loan guarantee. According to the SEC filings, the project is waiting to hear if it will receive the loan guarantee before financing will follow to build the turbines. Powerful donors to Democrats The investment group’s public face is often Cappy McGarr, a wealthy Texas philanthropist, investor and longtime fixture in Democratic politics, who has given heavily to Democratic candidates across the country and was an early backer of President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Joining McGarr in Dallas is Ed Cunningham, a former executive for several large Western entertainment companies in China, a 2002 Democratic senatorial candidate and a former member of Obama’s national finance committee. Two registered lobbyists with a long history of involvement in Democratic politics, G. John O’Hanlon and Moses Boyd, are the group’s anchors in Washington. O’Hanlon has been a party operative since the 1980s — a protégé of Democratic heavyweight Terry McAuliffe — and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic causes. Boyd is a former senior Democratic Capitol Hill staffer turned lobbyist. McGarr married into Democratic Party royalty — his wife’s uncle is legendary Democratic power broker Robert Strauss — and has made his own name as a big-time donor to the party and candidates across the country. McGarr and his wife, Janie Strauss McGarr, have given more than $375,000 to various Democratic candidates and political action committees since 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records. That doesn’t include the $50,000 he donated to Obama’s inauguration and $50,000 to $100,000 in donations from others that he “bundled” for the Obama campaign. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40565987/ns ... lus-money/
If Rapunzel would only learn to read he would see in the article that the students did NOT know what the take-home pay would be and what the job entailed. What is Rapunzel's source of information that says otherwise? It's an interesting approach. Instead of moving the factory overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor, bring the cheaper labor from overseas to the factory and save the cost of moving the factory. A shining example of the free market in action and a good way to preserve American jobs, I'm sure (major sarcasm alert for the humor-deficient).
I did more research and found this video. At the end of the video it is explained. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...ff-hershey-factory-job-protest-214310205.html
I think with our high unemployment rate we need to end these work visa programs. And this abuse is supported by both Democrat and Republlcans in Washington so it isn't really a partisan issue at all.
The stated problem you presented is that government is acting as an enabler by allowing exchange students to be a cheaper labor source than domestic students. Are you suggesting that the exchange students should pay Social Security taxes? By the way, exchange students aren't the systemic problem that drives away American jobs....it's the low wage labor that can be found by taking operations overseas. The only way to combat that is to institute some sort of protectionism.
Government keeps giving American jobs away. By SARAH NETTER March 27, 2009 At a time when America is bleeding jobs, an Alabama condom factory has lost its U.S. government contract to an overseas manufacturer and may be forced to close, leaving its workers with few prospects.. For years, Alatech Healthcare Products, based in Dothan, Ala., has relied on its contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides condoms to foreign governments and nonprofit entities, to fight HIV and AIDS and assist in family planning. While USAID has pointed to quality and reliability issues as the reason it's decided to stop using Alatech Healthcare condoms, Alatech's president said the government was only interested in getting its condoms for the cheapest price. And because, at 5 cents per condom, Alatech can't compete with the overseas prices of about 2 cents each, the company will likely be forced to shut its doors and fire its workers, some of whom have worked in the industry for decades. That includes Sam Turner, Alatech's director of operations. He's worked in Alatech's factory in nearby Eufala since 2001, a year after the company opened, but has worked with numerous other condom manufacturers, most of whom have since closed or moved overseas. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=7181080&page=1
It's OK to look at the big picture too, and I'm all for protectionism, but the 400 jobs in this story are nothing to turn your nose up at.
Considering lib's devotion to anything-goes sex and birth control its only logical that Obama would not allow the country to be at the mercy of foreign condom makers. What would happen if they cut off our condom supply for political reasons? Imagine the explosion of unwanted pregnancies because Obama failed to protect our domestic supply of condoms.
8 out of 10 stimulus dollars go overseas <<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2089 -- 3/05/2010 >>>>> web version http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2010/03/05/8-out-of-10-stimulus-dollars-go-overseas/ The good news is that the Obama stimulus money targeted for green industries is creating jobs. The bad news is that most of the jobs are in China. Two video reports describe what is happening. There are companion articles to the videos that fill in more details of the story. The video and text articles aren t the same so to get the complete picture check both of them out. Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines. So Where Are the Jobs? "Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money. "According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S." New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs, ABC News Reports, Jonathan Karl, Feb. 9, 2010 article: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949 video: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKbh0rS2_fw"]Green Stimulus Jobs Going to China? - YouTube[/ame] The story continued when an ABC News affiliate in San Diego did a follow up story with some very clever investigative reporting. Who would have ever thought of actually going to an office of one of the companies that are receiving billions of taxpayer dollars? A-Power Energy Generation Systems is one example. The company lists a downtown San Diego office suite as its business and mailing address in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, that office suite is vacant. Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding, KGTV 10, February 8, 2010 http://www.10news.com/news/22501136/detail.html video and article on same page Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding, February 8, 2010 In fact, the largest grant made under the program so far, a $178 million payment on Dec. 29, went to Babcock & Brown, a bankrupt Australian company that built a Texas wind farm using turbines made by a Japanese company. Of course the Chinese stuck their hooks into Texas also. The same day the Workshop s first reported on this story a consortium of American and Chinese companies announced a deal to build a $1.5 billion wind farm in Texas, using imported Chinese turbines. Company officials said they planned to collect $450 million in stimulus grants for the project. The deal would create dozens of jobs in the U.S. and thousands in China. The news provoked outrage among lawmakers, particularly after the Energy Department seemed to take a neutral stance, declining to say whether it would reject such an application. The tragedy with all of this is that most of the money isn t going to go to home grown crooks -- it s going to fund scams in other countries. Americans will get a few of the leftover crumbs when and if the foreign companies decide to hire workers to install the equipment, but even then there is no guarantee that they will hire Americans -- remember the Texas bridge welders from Italy? If Obama and Congress insist of throwing billions of dollars around, why aren t they making sure that the only pigs at the trough are U.S. citizens? LINKS http://www.vdare.com/sanchez/091123_italian_welders.htm Italian Welders Work On Dallas Bridge -- Texans Remain Jobless http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/about/ Investigative Reporting Workshop http://www.american.edu/soc/ School of Communication at American University ARTICLES COPIED BELOW http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949 New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs http://www.10news.com/news/22501136/detail.html Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding http://investigativereportingworksh...ry/renewable-energy-money-still-going-abroad/ Renewable energy money still going abroad, despite criticism from Congress (text only -- go to web page for charts and graphs) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKbh0rS2_fw"]Green Stimulus Jobs Going to China? - YouTube[/ame] http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949 New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs Millions Have Been Invested in Wind Farms, but That Hasn't Brought Jobs By JONATHAN KARL Feb. 9, 2010 Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C. Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines. So Where Are the Jobs? "Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money. "According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S." Even with the infusion of so much stimulus money, a recent report by American Wind Energy Association showed a drop in U.S. wind manufacturing jobs last year. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the flow of money to foreign companies an outrage, because the stimulus, he said, was intended to create jobs inside the United States. "This is one of those stories in Washington that when you tell people five miles outside the Beltway, or anywhere else in America, they cannot believe it," Schumer told ABC News, "It makes people lose faith in government, and it frankly infuriates me." Matt Rogers, the senior adviser to the Secretary of Energy for the Recovery Act, denied there was a problem. "The recovery act is creating jobs in the U.S. for American workers," said Rogers, "That is what the recovery act is about, that is what it is doing. Every dollar from the recovery act is going to create jobs for the American workers here in the U.S." How Did This Happen? Several of the large European turbine manufacturers had limited manufacturing facilities in the United States, but there was nothing in the stimulus plan that required that the turbines, or any other equipment needed for the wind farms, be made here, said Rogers. There are strict "Buy America" provisions in the Recovery Act, but this Green Energy Stimulus initiative turned the existing tax credits into cash grants, bypassing the "Buy America" provision. Iberdrola, one of the largest operators of renewable energy worldwide, is based in Spain and has received the most U.S. stimulus dollars -- $577 million. It buys some of its turbines from another Spanish manufacturer, Gamesa, which has a U.S. connection. Gamesa has two facilities to manufacture turbine blades in Pennsylvania, but the company said the market forced it to temporarily lay off nearly 100 workers. Eric Sheesley was one of those laid off from the Gamesa plant before Thanksgiving. "When we're employing other countries, we can't feed our kids at home. It gets hard you know." Sheesley had a glimmer of hope when a letter arrived this week telling him to report back to work next week. One reason so much money is going overseas is that there is not much of a wind power industry in the United States -- only two major American manufacturers make wind turbines: General Electric Energy and Clipper Wind based in Carpinteria, Calif. Even those companies do a significant amount of their manufacturing overseas. General Electric told ABC News that GE's Renewable Energy business has 3,000 employees around the world, 1,350 here in the United States. Schumer said the way to revitalize the domestic wind power industry and to create green jobs is to require that at least some of the turbine equipment to be made in the United States. An American Farm With Chinese Jobs Perhaps the most controversial wind project is one that has yet to receive stimulus money. A Chinese company called A-power is helping to build a massive $1.5 billion wind farm in West Texas. The consortium behind the project expects to get $450 million in stimulus money. http://www.zazona.com/NewsArchive/2010-03-05 8 out of 10 stimulus dollars go overseas .htm Read much more
Anyone know how much "program fees" are? They're making $8.35 and Pennsylvania's minimum wage is $7.25. It comes down to whether these fees account for more than the difference between pay and minimum wage and not paying SS/taxes, etc. If these kids claim that they didn't know how much their pay was, too (*)(*)(*)(*) bad. They should have found out. Who the heck takes a job not knowing what the pay is? And I'm sorry. You are young. Can't lift a box? Get some (*)(*)(*)(*) help. One of those strapping men would lift it for you.
That Texas wind farm project cost only one and a half billion dollars and would create about 1200 full time jobs. That is a small drop in the bucket of what we gave the banks and auto companies. Why didn't we fund it all with stimulus money instead of only putting in a few hundred million dollars in it and letting China fund the rest? Then allowing them to make the turbines in China. We will only get about 45 full time jobs out of it and China will get the rest. How much sense does that make?
RIGHT! Start taking care of our own country before getting our butts into foriegn country matters. Help them later when we can afford it and only if they don't hate our gutts either.
