Acerbic Politics

Just mnore examples of the corporate world abusing workers to increase profits. There are damn few of these bastards you can trust. We need more laws requiring accountability and more people on the job checking on them. You can't trust them for even one minute

From Daily Kos


Student guest workers walk off the job at McDonald's to protest abuses
from Daily Kos by rss@dailykos.com (Laura Clawson)

Student guest workers on the J-1 cultural exchange visa program walked out of their jobs at Pennsylvania McDonald's restaurants Wednesday morning, citing abuses of the same kinds that caused a walkout from a Hershey's supplier in summer 2011. As a result of that strike, the State Department investigated the program and strengthened protections somewhat, but not enough, according to analysts at the time and as demonstrated by the fact that once again student guest workers are coming forward with allegations of wage and hour abuses and having unreasonable rents deducted from their paychecks for basement rooms shared by several people.

Sean Kitchen reports that, at a recent meeting in Harrisburg, some of the student workers described their living and working conditions:

    While at work, these "students" were often forced to work from 6 or 7 in the morning to as late as 11 at night with only one 30 minute to hour break. And to top it off, these students are paid minimum wage for all the hours they worked, despite working well over 40 hours per week, qualifying them for overtime pay.

[...] Fernando told us about a story of retaliation from his employer.  When he spoke out against the company's tactics, the manager gave Fernando a 4 hour work week.  When Fernando was explaining that this story to the room, he asked, "How am I suppose to pay a $300 rent when only working 4 hours in 1 week?"