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Subscribe to RSSA national labor group is accusing the owner of six McDonald's franchises in Pennsylvania of abusing the State Department's controversial summer work visas for immigrant students program by underpaying 14 foreign workers and forcing them to live in crowded, overpriced apartments for which his company overcharged them.
In a complaint filed this week with the State Department, the National Guestworker Alliance, a nonprofit activist group based in New Orleans, alleged sub-minimum-wage pay, wage theft, overpriced substandard housing, and retaliation at three of the six stores operated by Cheung Enterprises of Middletown, Pa.
It filed a similar complaint with the Labor Department in February, which it amended in a second filing this week.
Cheung Enterprises didn't return NBC News' calls for comment.
About 50 people who the alliance said included employees and community supporters staged a protest outside one of Cheung's stores Wednesday in nearby Camp Hill.
The National Guestworkers Alliance said 14 student workers, who are from Argentina, Peru, Chile, Malaysia and other countries in Latin America and Asia, paid $3,000 apiece to be hosted by Cheung Enterprises under J-1 temporary work visas. In return, it said, Cheung Enterprises treated them as "cheap, exploitable workers."
It claimed the workers were promised 40 hours of work a week but were scheduled capriciously — some for as few as four hours a week, others for as long as 25 hours in a single shift.
The NGA said Cheung Enterprises forced them to live up to eight to an apartment in substandard housing that he owned, charging rent that "brought their weekly net pay down far below" Pennsylvania's minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
When workers complained to federal authorities, they were referred to GeoVisions, the Connecticut organization that arranged their employment and visas, said the new complaints, which were made public Thursday. The alliance claimed that GeoVisions workers made surprise visits to the workers' apartments to intimidate them.
Kevin Morgan, GeoVisions' chief executive, said Thursday night that the allegation "doesn't make sense."
"We try to work with the students. We're really responsible for dealing with any difficulties the students are having," Morgan told NBC News, adding that the organization's chief operating officer was in Harrisburg, Pa., to "get in touch with all of the parties."
"This is a really unusual circumstance," he said, noting that groups of students placed with a host are usually all from the same country. The workers named in the NGA complaints come from several countries on two continents, and "there may be some cultural pressures," Morgan said.
The complaints make no allegations against McDonald's Corp. itself, but in a statement Thursday, Saket Soni, the alliance's executive director, said, "McDonald's abuse of student guestworkers shows how corporations trap guestworkers in sub-minimum-wage exploitation using the fear of deportation." He called for immigration reforms "that let immigrant workers expose abuse without fear."
A spokeswoman for McDonald's told NBC News that the company has a standard franchise arrangement with Cheung Enterprises and doesn't oversee its stores.
"We take the well-being of the employees working in McDonald's restaurants seriously," the company said in a separate statement. "We are working closely with the franchisee to investigate the claims surrounding his program."
A bipartisan group of senators agreed in January to seek an expansion of "guest worker" programs as a way to give illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens. But such programs are unpopular with labor groups, which contend that employers use it to find cheap temporary labor in place of hiring younger Americans full-time.
The State Department revised the program after workers on J-1 visas walked out at a distribution center for Hershey Co., the chocolate manufacturer, in Pennsylvania in August 2011. The State Department capped the number of J-1 participants allowed in the country at 103,000 and limited some of the industries they could work in.
The Labor Department recovered more than $213,000 in back wages for 1,028 foreign students in a settlement with three outside companies involved in staffing the facility.
Like McDonald's in the current case, Hershey Co. wasn't accused of any abusive practices, and took no part in the proceeding.
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Foreigners abusing foreigners. Stop the madness!.... and yes, I will have a coke with those fries.. :-)
The dirty underworld of "Ronald McDonald's" black market happy meals is finally exposed. Why do you suppose all the characters wear the disguises? Like the "Hamburgler" isn't hiding his shylockish ways, and deceiving Americans into eating billions of "corrupt" Quarter Pounders. Right! And tell me "Grimace" isn't named for what he makes the nearly slave workers do when he tortures them in their cramped quarters at night! I boycott McDonald's until at least Monday or so.
Immigrants my a$$...how many are "students" vs how many are ILLEGAL ALIENS. Wonder which one hires more ILLEGALS..fast food or wally world?
Oh BTW.... the "summer work visas ? ....SUMMERS OVER.....
gm Scooter...
An obscure article I ran down several months ago....
Obama signed into law last year legislation that makes it illegal to deport anyone, even if they are an illegal alien or if their work visas have expired, who is engaged in litigation involving a violation of their civil or human rights.
Ta-da!!!
These students cannot be deported, and if I'm not mistaken, the government is more or less obligated to provide them with housing and food while they are awaiting the outcome of their lawsuit.
Gee, wonder how long that will take to get through our speedy justice system? Wonder if any of them will drop anchor babies while they are waiting?
gm to all the usual suspects
While they are at it, they should investigate the Fry Kids under the Child Labor laws.
Whats the big deal, McDonalds been abusing Americans with that greasy trashy food with toxic levels of salt; not to mention addictive chicken McNuggets that the keep sending the kidos tochicken rehab...
When I saw the headline, I knew - either Chinese or Indian
If there is a way to scam the system, mistreat the employee or cheat the customer to make an extra buck - they are the best at it
This guy got caught defrauding the government and American tax payers. Take everything he owns and throw his a$$ in prison fro 10 years!
There are some businesses that lend themselves to the exploitation of labor, restaurants being one of them. When I was in college and working in restaurants, I saw people washing dishes for a few dollars a day and a bed in the back room. I saw people being forced to work 18 to 20 hours per day or be fired. They were not paid for that time, but for a standard eight. The fast food distributors are even worse.
If you want to stop the exploitation of labor, be it domestic or foreign, you must take away the club used by business. That club being deportation. People consent to be exploited because they don't dare to complain and business continues to nurture illegal immigration because they then get an exploitable work force. If they can report their employers' abuses without fear of deportation, it makes it far more difficult for business owners to use and abuse them. BTW, if they are deported, there is no testimony to bring down the business owner and he just hires more illegals once the troublemakers are gone. You don't solve the problem, which is the business owners who offer jobs to people who enter the country illegally.
In this particular case, the business owner was really stupid, because his labor force was here legally and couldn't be intimidated with deportation. But does anyone seriously believe that most of these "guest workers" are going to leave when their visas run out?
While I'm on the subject, do any of you realize how many guest workers are being imported from the Philippines and China and India to do skilled labor at a fraction of the cost of American skilled labor? Look at the nurses in your local hospitals. They are being hired at wages far below what American nurses would be paid. The same is true for engineers, IT workers, etc. The argument is that these jobs can't be filled due to lack of trained Americans. It's a bogus argument. Ask any of the engineers standing in the unemployment lines. It is just another way for corporations to screw America.
It's our ELECTED OFFICIALS that screw America. We keep voting them in and we keep snapping and snarling at the opposite party while never bothering to look at the voting record of our own, or reading the fine print of the laws that our own party reps vote for.
I keep posting that Obama signed into law legislation that illegal aliens or people whose visas have expired cannot be deported if they are engaged in any court action they have filed.
Do you have any freaking idea how long it takes for these cases to be heard? Try five, ten and more years. These people will have their damn grandchildren helping them into court before their cases are called up!
Know who you are voting for and what laws THEY voted for. And when you go to vote, from your local level on up, take someone with you. Get involved.
Why are we handing out visas to foreign students to come here an work when there are more than enough US citizen college students and other workers available to fill these positions. The only reason for this program is to allow these businesses to bring in cheap labor that they can pay less than they would have to pay a citizen to do the same job. It is time to put a stop to the J-1 visa program entirely, there is no economic justification for it.
Of course McDonald cares for their guest workers, whose working and living conditions were treated similar to those of indentured slaves. But notice the cop out they use, "doesn't oversee it's stores." That's code words used like Sergeant Schultz did on Hogan's Heroes for "I no nothing."
If the McDonald's name is on the freaking building, they're liable for sh!t that goes on under their name! Nice try Sergeant Schultz!
For a short time, I was an assistant manager of a top rated fast food chain. The general manager knowingly had MANY illegals working there. Sometimes these people were forced to work 70 hours a week. Of course, the national company insisted that no overtime be paid to hourly workers. So, the GM had a whole stack of fake identities. When they reached 40 hours on one ID, he made them clock out and then clock in under a different identity.
Stuff like this happens all of the time.
MOMINNJ - So, knowing about this was going on at the time, why don't you tell us what you did to stop it?
Because he was banging the hotties
It happens to US citizens, as well.
Maybe he tried to and that's why he was only an assistant manager for a short time.
to whom? think they care? try it ONCE i have . known illegals live next door and down the street, they are dragging the neighborhood down constantly i have talked to the P.D. politicians, HLS , and the SS people as well as the welfare and have videotaped the poor recipients of SSD doing things i cannot, yet they get checks. many have been delivered here by mistake so yeah i know. I even video taped em snorting coke in the yard. as well as the drops made there weekly, they cops bust em, next day they are back because they cannot be "properly identified" ...funny how ILLEGALS cant be huh?...the SS people said they would act, then asked me for their SSN's like i would know my neighbors SSN? are you @!$%#ting me i asked? they said no, without it we simply cannot act. This is the true face of whats going on here as most know, yet they bleat ...obama, over and over, so i ask you..who's stupider here? US or THEM.
Painting all illegals with one brush doesn't work. I live next door to them too, in the summer southern NJ fruit plantation crops would dry up & rot on the vines were it not for the work these illegals do. They get up at dawn, work steadily all day until dusk. On Sat evenings I see them lined up at a store that allows them to wire money home to their families. Were they not here, the crops would rot, and their families would suffer even a worse standard of living than they already do. Before you criticize illegal workers in the US, I think you should be forced to spend one day in July picking blueberries. Note these are crops that cannot be harvested by machines. At the same time I live beside legal Amercian youths who are unemployed, living off mom & dad's generosity well into their twenties, haven't decided what they want to do yet when they "grow up". They complain that there is no work, but when anyone suggests helping with the seasonal crops for a paycheck instead of watching TV all day on mom's cable bill, oh the horrified look they give you.
@ Hank Lucky and Severered Head, I would assume by the Monniker, MOMinNJ is not a male.
@ IA.ScooterTramp Why should we expect anything less from this administration. When ICE releases hundreds of illegal from jails in Arizona to further the Obama sequester scare tactics and than Obama and Janet Napolitano denying they knew anything about it ahead of the release is a good indicator of what to expect from the Obama administration. (Screw the country, I need the hispanic votes) Part of the problem is that the Lame Stream Media ignored it and the liberals defend it so nothing get changes.
The Social Security Administration will not even release a persons SSN to the police without a lengthy administrative process. The Feds use your number to track your financially and other activities. Many illegals do not have a SSN and many others are using somebody else's SSN their employer and there could be dozens all using the same SSN. They can buy ID's and SS cards from street hawkers on the streets of Chicago. You can drive down certain streets in Chicago and ID Hawkers are out banging on your windows like drug dealers or prostitutes to see if you want stolen or counterfeit ID's and SSN's. But it keeps them out of the enforcement problems which with this administration don't really exist anyway. But nothing gets done because they need the hispanic vote.
DaForce - so you think the president (any president) knows every f&**ing thing that goes on in every one of the 50 states every second of every day??? you are an idiot. no doubt ICE needs to get of their lazy asses and finally enforce the law. Or in your opinion maybe the president, this one and of course all those that came before and will come after, should just go door to door personally???
"MOMINNJ - So, knowing about this was going on at the time, why don't you tell us what you did to stop it?"
Look at her icon. She was probably cheering the "job creators" on.
@DaForce, the President is not responsible for the actions of a business man.
MominNj,If you didn't turn this person in then as an assistant manager you are part of the problem.There is no job,no boss or any person that I am going to aide and abet in illegal activities.
GhizNJ,No excuse for illegal farm labor.There are work permits issued by the U.S. government for farm laborers.I guess you didn't mind not knowing if some of these workers were sex offenders or felons from their home countries.F.Y.I.I live in California,the bread basket of the country.I see the illegals with their anchor babies and EBT cards for those kids.They use the emergency room as their personal physician and their anchor babies qualify for the free school lunch programs and also Headstart.Cheap labor for the farmers,higher prices for the consumer even with underpaid illegal labor and higher taxes for the taxpayers of California.
Just today unemployment is down to 7.7% What are we thinking giving work visas for jobs at the "golden arches"?
Why would any American want to work at McDonalds when they can make the same amount on a welfare check and do nothing?
You are mistaken. Old-style ."Welfare" no longer exists, only emergency aid with a 5-year lifetime cap. But hey, that won't stop RWpropagandists from recycling their pre-President Clinton talking points. In fact these charges have been a rw staple since the 19th century, an old saw used to turn poor people against each other, so isn't it time you learned a new song?
Why would anyone pay an American a decent wage when they can get illegals to work for much less?
GM IndianaE. Answer: Sharp uniforms?
Gotta love those sharp uniforms!
Pennsyltucky, I can recycle those talking points because of a little thing called exemptions and extensions. Having children is a good way to extend your welfare checks a little longer....
And please explain to me how welfare turns poor people against each other. If thats the case, lets abolish welfare altogether. Welfare is a great thing when it is used how it should be (to get people back on their feet), but so many people abuse it.
Not that I support those conditions for these students, however, I bet is still better than where they come from.
Yea, because every country on the planet is a 3rd world mudhole that would fall apart without the US. At least thats what FAUX NEWS tells us.
I didn't say that. But there are many parts of this world that don't have decent living conditions. I like clean/running water. We at least have opportunities for work here.
We need to do away with the temp work visas(J-1, B-1, etc), there are plenty of teenagers in America who are unemployed. And don't say they won't work for minimum wage, I know several neighborhood kids that want to work but can't find a job. Corporations pushed these work visas through Congress so they can pay slave wages to foreigners.
Ya right. They just won't show up on time and the quality of work they do is less than desirable, whereas the foreign workers which I've employed as housekeepers at a hotel or work in our restaurant work diligently, fast and they show up on time sober. They also don't try to bleed you thru the work comp system. Try operating a business zipperhead.
Anecdotal evidence Hank,
I've been a manager for a long time and would rather hire an American, they are happy to work like anyone else. You are the reason we have these illegals using up all the social services, they will leave your company as soon as they get permanent residency. Then you have to hire more foreigners and the cycle continues.
BS in my area. Teens could earn something helping with the summer fruit crops, but it is "beneath" them. I know plenty who spend their vacations lounging on parent's couch running up her cable bill increasing the childhood obesity rates, while they could be out picking blueberries for minimum wage (and getting some exercise too!).
That would be the fault of the parents. Want a cell phone, car, Xbox, etc? Get a job.
"A bipartisan group of senators agreed in January to seek an expansion of "guest worker" programs as a way to give illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens."
Yes it is my taxpaying responsibility to care for an illegal alien once they are caught in my country. How about going back home and appying for citizenship in this country; the legal way?
I remember the "good old days" when McDonald's wouldn't hire our brown-skinned brothers and sisters.
Those days are over in spades!
LOL see what I did thar?
That's just ingnorant and rascist. I don't care who McD's hires so long as they are Americans first.
aren't most if not all McDonalds franchised owned?
and aren't most of them if not all, owned by middle eastern people? or is it just where I live?
so immigrants are treating illegal immigrants badly? huh?
I know I know, they have their working papers, yah, ok
illegal immigrants can get working papers at the drop of a hat, just try to hire 1 and you will see.
It's just where you live. I can't think of a single one in my area that isn't owned by Whitey.
Racist Whitey, right??? Don't have to wait very long on a NewsVine site for "racist" BS to start. You COULD launch protests to change that, you know. But that would mean DOING SOMETHING.
Why don't Blackie own any then Bro? You want the illegals for votes, but in the long run, they take your jobs away. It makes no sense to me Bro.
Actually - who cares about this whole situation? If they don't like the working conditions - go back home and get a job, see if it's any better for ya! I'm tired of giving needed jobs to temp immigrants, while US citizens are in need of those jobs, AND paying for the administration of this stupid J-1 program. It isn't about rascism at all as I see it, it's about liberal policies coming back to bite you in the butt - as usual. And then the liberals complain about it. Send them all home, stop this program and let the McD's franchises hire Americans - of whatever race. Who frankly gives a crap about this except bleeding heart liberals??
a---rand, I don't know why blacks don't own them. Mostly what blacks mostly seem to own around here is donks and pickup trucks. Yeah, pickups - a little strange but that's how it is.
Generalizing is an excellent way to be proven wrong. People of Indian and Asian descent want to own their own businesses, so in areas where they live, they are likely to be employers rather than employees. Some just have a small business and employ mainly family. Once they have accumulated the money, they buy something bigger or get a franchise.
They are inclined to exploit their work force. Where they come from, that is the way you get ahead, by taking advantage of someone else. They are ambitious, hard working, and willing to cut whatever corners necessary to up their profit. I've worked for a few of these folks. They don't make the world's best bosses, but that is largely cultural. Start imposing some significant penalties and they will learn to play by the rules. There are plenty of corporations who play just as fast and loose with the labor laws and they're owned by rich white folks and shareholders who happily look the other way when the abuses come to light.
Be that as it may, I have never been impressed with the employment standards of the fast food places. As a rule, they treat their help very poorly and take advantage whenever they can. There are people who have tried working in these places and discovered that what little they were paid didn't even come close to making it worth working under such conditions.
Roger,good post.You can go into some of the seedier parts of Los Angeles and buy Social Security cards,drivers licenses and birth certificates.
another foreigner abusing his own race.....and nothing done to him.if that was a white store owner doing the same thing he'd be in jail and the lawsuits would already been filed.take away his stores and deport him...let him start over in his country.most of the mcdonalds in the york/harrisburg area are owned by foreigners...the reason i won't go to any of them.there usually dirty and the help is poor...
This is a program that has passed it's usefulness. We need to employ US teenagers and young adults, not import workers. This MCD's franchise seems to be owned by a person of Asian origin - running it a bit like the China, Japan and Southeast Asian sweatshops. No surprise there. We already have millions of illegals in this country and we are still importing new immigrants?? This is a PRIME area to cut back spending - this program requires administration and support that should be axe'd. More stupid legislation that is contrary to the US needs and costly to it's citizens. Just plain stupid - they come from places that treat workers like crap, and then complain when that happens here.
Amen. In Florida alone the Unemployment Rate for young Black Teenagers is ridiculous. And they WANT to work. The only obstacle is the number of illegals sucking up every job available in fast food restaurants and any other job which sjould be available.
Exactly! Just try and get a job at one of those if you don't speak Spanish.
Exactly - pretty soon we're going to have to have an interpreter to order a big mac and fries. Really? When I was growing up, we had Italians, Irish, English, Blacks, Asians, and everyone spoke English very well - it was required. Now it's like - okay customer - figure out what language you need to know to buy from this fast food or 711. Sucks - learn the f'ng language people and either become citizens or go the heck home.
Chiz boogy! Chiz boogy! Fry!
danteblanco,I agree with you.Well written comments also.
We have American citizens unable to find jobs for years and "legislators" are backing expansions of these idiotic programs so that more illegals can freeload! Sounds like high time we added a lot of politicians to the ranks of the unemployed,, including the top politician. Mickey D hire illegals? Sure thing. Just go to the one next to the apartment complex in Houston where you can see the van loads of illegals pull up late Saturday nights. When I complained about an order that was not even close, the manager/owner's comment was "yes, a lot of our staff have a language problem". And try to complain to Mickey about it? All you get is the "Oh, that is a franchise so it's not our problem" line.
Look into the H1B visa program sometime. And Corporations are pressing Congress to expand the number of visas because the "can't find qualified US programmers."
Over the past year my employer has hired nothing but H1B programmers from India. They don't even bother interviewing US citizens.
Severed Head In A Jar,Your comments are absolutely 100% truthful.Those same employers have an American train two H1B employees and then lay off the American who trained them.There was a program on television about a year ago where employees who'd been laid off by Fortune 500 firms were telling these facts to an interviewer.
ALL businesses, from what I can tell, will happily and eagerly abuse and exploit workers if they think they can get away with it.
It's only rigidly enforced regulations and the fear of punishment that holds them back.
These weren't illegals, but they were vulnerable foreign visa workers who were made to fear that if they complained, their visas would be revoked and they would be deported. The franchise owners realized that fear allowed them to get away with turning their workers into indentured servants.
Other firms (mostly hospitality and agriculture) actively seek out and hire illegal immigrants, knowing they can exploit them for cheap labor. And if they ever get uppity, all they have to do is call Immigration and have the problem workers deported. Then they go out and hire replacements. We treat the illegal immigrants like the criminals while at the same time turning a blind eye to the firms that are making sure any illegal who gets into the country has a job lined up and ready to go.
We also turn a blind eye to the child labor and sweatshops that produce a huge amount of the cheap goods we import -- even when those sweatshops are owned and operated by US companies.
Our prosperity depends on exploiting cheap, uneducated, disposable workers. We've just outsourced it to happen outside our borders, or found a way to criminalize the workers themselves if they're inside the US.
Those workers, outside our borders as you say, would not have jobs nor income if it was not for US work coming to those firms that employ those people. US companies do not operate sweat shops offshore, but they do outsource work to companies that I am sure have different labor standards and practices. Who the hell cares? It's their country, and they want the work, let them manage it. If you are an illegal alien working in the US - you better be ready to have less than standard wage, security and living conditions. You haven't earned those standards and never will as an illegal. So - you get what you ask for - either come in legally and become a citizen, or run the risk of being abused as an illegal. I for one don't give a crap about how illegals are treated. They are criminals and should not be here - they chose a path of high risk and have no rights. End of story - stop bleeding your heart out for things that we have no reason to fix, nor should we fix. It is this way for a reason. Don't want to be abused? then don't come here illegally and take jobs away from US citizens. Get real - we don't govern other countries labor practices, nor should we, as that's out of our control. Illegals would not be coming here, knowing about these conditions, if they weren't being paid much more than they would be at their home countries so they made a decision, now live with the consequences. End of story.
Read the article. These people are brought here on legal J1 visas by the companies. They aren't illegals.
Disney does a bunch of this as well.
danteblanco, are you honestly making the argument that people working as indentured servants and child laborers in overseas sweatshops should be thankful for the jobs we provide them?
Really?
I think it's the height of hypocrisy for us to, as a society, have decided that slavery is wrong if we do it, and OK if we profit from somebody else doing it. As long as there are enough middlemen between the suffering, exploited workers and yourself as a consumer, we seem to have decided it's OK.
Imagine a world where everybody was granted fair pay and worker's rights. I'm guessing you'd think it was terrible because products and labor wouldn't be cheap, plentiful, and disposable.
There's a reason we passed the laws we did in the US about 100 years ago against exploiting workers and using child labor. It's a moral reason, not an economic one. And now we've just gone and made trade agreements with nations that don't have those sorts of protections because we're unwilling to actually live according to those morals.
So, Spielman -
Your computer, keyboard, monitor, modem, wifi spot are all made in the US where everyone is paid fairly and has workers rights?
Cool. What brand would those be?
mpa
It is virtually impossible to get everything you need without buying something from overseas. That is largely because the corporations have exported the manufacturing jobs to a place where they can treat workers like slaves. If you really want jobs to come back to America, then you need to demand that all American companies pay reasonable wages and treat employees like human beings regardless of the location. The reason our labor can't compete is because they can't work for 30 cents an hour and they refuse to be chained to their machines. Another reason is because Monsanto can go to China or Mexico and dump toxic waste in the water supply, causing thousands of miscarriages and malformed children and cancer and death. We actually tell them they can't do that here. Silly us. Expecting a big company like Monsanto to care if they poison the water supply! If we demand decent working conditions and wages for all workers, everywhere, then we will be competitive. We will also create a world wide middle class that can afford to purchase what is being manufactured. And if we demand that all companies take care of their pollutants in a responsible fashion, no matter where they are, the entire world will be a better place and people will enjoy better health.
The owner is not very good at math if he is only giving some 4 hours a week and others 25 hour long shifts. And to boot, scamming the system.
Just another case of corporations thinking they can do whatever they want as long as they make a buck. They'd gladly bring back slavery and working 8 year olds in sweat shops if they could.
Nothing surprising here. McDonald's has abused all workers since their inception in the 1960's with low hourly wages and few raises after hiring which can be in 5 cent increments. Benefits are bogus and employees must beg for new shirts or ties. The only thing I would buy there is a regular coffee. Amazing Wall Street waits for their quarterly sales/profit reports on their hands and knees.
Yank -
Don't know what you do for a living. MickeyD workers are hardly qualified to do much else. They don't even need to know how to count change.
So, you do patronize them, but only for coffee? Your integrity is a shining example to us all.
I stoped eating at McD'd years ago, never missed them. Grandkids learn quick when I take them somewhere else a few times they begin to realize that other places have better food & are just as fun. But I won't take them to a McD's.
It seems as though the Robber Barons are making a full comeback! Much to my disdain.
Im so sick of the diversity in this Country! It has done not 1,ONE,UNO thing for this Country but destroy it. Complete Liberal/Democrat failure!
Republicans and big business are the ones pushing the guest worker programs, not the Democrats. Democrats and liberals create lots of problems, too, but lets keep the problems and the guilty sorted out.
Why do we need guest worker programs in this country? Why do we spend our tax dollars to bring labor from other countries, while Americans can not find work? How is this a benefit to American taxpayers? These kinds of policies have been hollowing out the middle class while leading to high unemployment and low wages ... killing consumer demand. At the macro level, it makes no sense for businesses either; they kill their sales when people don't have the money to buy their products. It is ludicrous for them to go to Congress and say they can not find people to take these jobs in this country ... this is just not true.
Tough!
Finally my chance to rant about McDonald's. I have hated the place for years. I am the daughter of a veterianarian. In my 1st year in University in the 60's, I took and Agriculture course that included meat grading. Blue ribbon, AA, etc. When I got an upfront look at the subhuman level of meat that goes into McD's it was enough to make me vomit (I would'nt give my dogs this food). I like meat, eat it judiciously, but have never allowed my children to eat their despite their insidious use of tiny, cute toy advertisements. The fact that the chain mistreats employees is no surprise. They have mistreated customers for decades.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Why is our own government letting businesses hire foreign people to work summer jobs that our own kids should be doing? Summer work is important for American kids, and we do not need to import and hire foreign workers for any job that Americans can do!
Why? Think votes, La Raza, etc. It is always about the money, power, votes. It is never about the good of the country.
Remember that when you next vote for "incumbent."
Careful, back, don't want to be accused of being a "socialist" for saying goverenment should tell businesses how to run themselves.
Something not adding up to this story. It states that $213,00 in back wages was recovered for the immigrant workers from Hershey Co. yet it states that like the McDonald's case the company was not accused of obuse or involved in the proceedings.
How do you recover $213,00 in back wages from an employer without them being involved in the proceedings?
Follow along closely. Read slooowly.
It was a distribution center that serviced Hershey.
The money was recovered from staffing agencies that staffed the distribution center that was not owned by Hershey.
Got it?
fastballthrower,Companies settle the claim through their plethora of corporate attorneys outside of court,pay a fine to the U.S. government and hope to keep it out of the media.That is how they did not have to be involved in the proceedings.
In the very first sentence, this article refers obliquely to the owner of this company ("...for which his company overcharged them..."), yet never once is that person's name actually disclosed. This is very lame reporting.