“We paid $3,000-4,000 each to come to the United States on this program, expecting a cultural exchange… Instead, we became exploited workers at McDonald's restaurants in Pennsylvania.”
Jorge Rios, a student from Argentina, belongs to a group of guestworkers that are demanding reparations for allegedly being exploited by a Pennsylvania McDonald's.
Via: coworker.org
My name is Jorge Rios. I'm a student guestworker from Argentina who came to the U.S. on the State Department's J-1 Summer Work Travel Program, together with other students from Latin America and Asia.
We paid $3,000-4,000 each to come to the United States on this program, expecting a cultural exchange and good work that would let us earn back this money over three months and travel a bit at the end.
Instead, we became exploited workers at McDonald's restaurants in Pennsylvania. We had terrible working and housing conditions. We faced threats, stolen wages, grease burns up and down our arms. We were only used to enrich our employer.
We expected to have 40 hours of work a week, but we were given as little as four hours a week at the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The employer knew we were desperate for more hours, and he kept us on call to come in with 30 minutes' notice all day and night. I didn't even have time to visit the public library...
We could not quit because we knew that if we did, our visas would be cancelled. One manager told us, "You better remember, all we have to do is make one phone call and we can deport you back to your country at any time."
Our employer Andy Cheung charged us $300 each per month to live in basement apartments he owned. As many as eight of us lived in a single basement. We slept on bunkbeds made for children that shook and squeaked. We had no privacy whatsoever.
When we talked to the U.S. workers alongside us, we learned that they were being exploited too. They told us they also faced too few hours, threats from managers, and unpaid overtime.
1. That McDonald's pay us students back all the money we are owed, including the money we spent to come work for the company, unpaid overtime, and housing overcharges;
2. That McDonald's offer full-time work to its U.S. workers, who are struggling with too few hours;
3. That McDonald's reveal all the stores where it employs guestworkers, and sign an agreement with the National Guestworker Alliance to guarantee basic labor standards for them, including protections from retaliation when workers organize against abuse.
