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King’s Island Labor Issues
Channel 9 in Cincinnati reported this week (watch the video) about a King’s Island Amusement Park staffing agreement with Worldwide International Student Exchange (WISE). WISE promises kids around the world a trip to America, a job, and nice living quarters. For this WISE collects $3000 from the kids.
But when they arrived in Ohio, according to the Channel 9 report, they found the living conditions unacceptable, transportation unavailable, and recourse unattainable; If they spoke up, they risked losing their visa and possible deportation.
Without proper safeguards, the current guest worker/visa program could be abused and, for the young people coming to America, a form of indentured servitude. What do you think? Have you met or interacted with kids at Kings Island or other public venues? What obligation to the kids does the hiring organization have? Could this kind of hiring program lead to situations in which young people, far from home and unable to speak English effectively, are being forced to work in order to pay back the cost of coming to America?
Let’s hear from you.
Tags: guest worker, kings island, labor, visa, WISE
I used to work at Kings Island years ago, before Cedar Fair purchased the park. I think this problem has been happening for a long time now. The internationals (as we called them) frequently had to quit their jobs because transportation was always an issue; they could not find affordable, convenient transportation. I also remember that many of the international students had to live together in very small apartments, with sometimes three or 4 people sharing a 1 or 2 bedroom place. I have to question, though, where the responsibility for these problem lies. Kings Island only cared about this kids for their labor; they certainly would not have promised them help with transportation. Kings Island also didn’t treat international students working for them with much respect. The students always got the worst jobs, usually working in the food service department. Because of the availability of cheap labor with the abundance of high school students who want to work there, managers were never really patient with the students, and sometimes didn’t hesitate to fire them - they knew they could replace them with someone who spoke better English and who had more reliable transportation. With all of the on-site work problems there, the WISE organization should take better care of investigating their workplaces, making sure the people for whom these international students are going to be working for are really prepared for the challenges of having temporary international workers.