Dear John,
It’s been a big month for ILRF's Seafood Workers' Rights Campaign! We made progress on: advocating for legal reforms in Thailand during the industry's annual Seafood Summit; demanding better corporate accountability standards from the Marine Stewardship Council; and learning from frontline worker organizers like the Fishers’ Rights Network in Thailand.
On June 10, we kicked off the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Bangkok with a presentation on the need for a legally enabling environment for decent work in the seafood industry in Thailand. In my presentation, I highlighted the need for migrant workers to have rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in order to prevent forced labor in the seafood industry. ILRF called on international brands and Thai suppliers to allow all workers these basic rights and recommended that the Thai government ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and reform national laws accordingly.
That same day, together with leading labor, human rights and environmental organizations and members of the Thai Seafood Working Group, we released a statement expressing concern that the Marine Stewardship Council’s revised Chain of Custody Certification will not be effective in identifying, preventing, or protecting seafood workers from labor rights violations.
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Kimberly Rogovin, ILRF’s Senior Seafood Campaign Coordinator, speaks about the need to respect workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining to prevent forced labor of migrant workers in the seafood industry in Thailand, June 10, 2019. |
ILRF’s Seafood Team visits the Fishers’ Rights Network in Southern Thailand, June 8, 2019. |
ILRF’s Seafood Team visited the Fishers’ Rights Network (FRN), an independent, democratic union of fishermen, which was established in May 2018 by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). We interviewed FRN organizers and migrant fishers about ongoing labor issues on fishing vessels, challenges faced in organizing migrant workers in Thailand, and what they hope can be accomplished through the union. One fisher said, “It’s not about handling individual cases but about building power so we can deal with the problems together.” Along with labor allies, the ITF continues to advocate for full rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining for all workers in Thailand.
Last month, the 2019 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons report was released and, rightly so, Thailand remained at its previous ranking of Tier 2. Maintaining the Tier 2 status is consistent with the Thai Seafood Working Group’s recommendation, yet the U.S. government missed an opportunity to focus Thai authorities and businesses on the structural changes needed to prevent labor trafficking in the country, such as granting all workers, regardless of their immigration status, rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. You can read more in our new blog, and share on Twitter and Facebook.
In solidarity,
Kimberly Rogovin
Senior Seafood Campaign Coordinator
This email was sent by the International Labor Rights Forum.
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