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March over exploitation at DHL Exel-operated distribution centre

Thousands are backing a march in a US town today to demand living-wage jobs for locals and to back overseas students who alleged exploitation at a US distribution plant, operated by a DHL company.

Pennsylvania workers, unemployed residents and unionists as well as the overseas students who worked at the plant under the J-1 visa programme are expected to turn out at the action in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They are demanding that Hershey’s packing plant, run by DHL subsidiary Exel, create living-wage jobs for local workers.

The march follows strike action six weeks ago by students from countries such as China and Nigeria over reportedly appalling rates of pay and poor working conditions. The students were also demanding that managers come to the negotiating table to discuss their demands; they refused to do so. Three federal agencies are currently investigating the allegations of exploitation at the plant and an estimated 70,000 people have signed a petition backing the students. A number of the students have now returned home, however.

Participants on the march are now making new demands, including that the students are refunded the money they paid for the cultural exchange programme they were meant to receive and that living-wage jobs be created for local workers at the packing plant