McDonald's workers in central Pennsylvania launched a strike at 11:00 this morning, reports Josh Eidelson of the Nation. The guest workers, who began the surprise strike, allege the franchisee of the world's largest fast-food hamburger chain owes them unpaid wages and has retaliated against them. 

Eidelson writes that the workers are from Latin America and Asia and are working in the United States under the controversial J-1 cultural exchange visa program. Advocates like the National Guestworker Alliance (NGA), which is helping to lead the strike, say the J-1 visa program is "rife with abuse." Programs that bring in guest workers like the J-1 visa, says NGA, "offer ample opportunities for employers to intimidate workers, suppress organizing and drive down labor standards."

Eidelson writes:

“McDonald's is just the latest in a long line of corporations that have hijacked the U.S. guest worker program to get cheap, exploitable labor, and that’s what the students are,” NGA Executive Director Saket Soni told The Nation. “The conditions are horrific but have become the norm for guest workers.”

The workers are striking over what they charge are rampant abuses at their stores in Harrisburg and nearby Lemoyne and Camp Hill. According to NGA, the visiting students each paid $3,000 or more for the chance to come and work and were promised full-time employment; most received only a handful of hours a week, while others worked shifts as long as 25 hours straight, without being paid overtime. “Their employer is also their landlord,” said Soni. “They’re earning sub-minimum wages, and then paying it back in rent” to share a room with up to seven co-workers. “Their weekly net pay is actually sometimes brought as low as zero." 

“We are living in [a] basement,” said Rios, “cramped together, with no divisions, in bunkbeds which are meant for children.”

Read the rest of Eidelson's article here.