Foreign Students Making a Big Deal Out of 'Chocolate Sweatshop' Experience
The U.S. Labor Department and the State Department are both investigating beloved chocolate maker Hershey's, due to the complaints of a few foreigners. The sweet company's crime? Helping foreigners learn about America.
From a press release from Change.org, on behalf of the foreign chocosaboteurs:
Hundreds of foreign students paid to come to America this summer as part of a cultural exchange program promising opportunities to learn English and experience American culture while working. Instead, the students claim they were forced to work in back-breaking, round-the-clock production lines packing chocolates at the Hershey's Chocolate Company Packing Plant in Pennsylvania for wages as low as $1/hour after mandatory deductions. When the students complained, they claim factory managers threatened to have them deported.
In other words, Hershey's did exactly what these kids wanted: it taught them English terms like "back to work," and it introduced them to the prototypical aspects American culture—hating your job, and constantly grabbing fistfuls of chocolate. But now they're making a big deal about it, simply because they were surprised to find out that their "cultural exchange program" amounted to indentured servitude. Hey foreigners, how do you think all the other foreigners got here, historically? Indentured servitude. The lucky ones, at least.
Foreigners.