John,

Procter & Gamble’s business partner FGV has been banned from importing
palm oil to the US -- thanks to your action, and a law that’s almost 100
years old!

John, you just dealt a massive blow to one of the worst workers
rights offenders in the palm oil industry. That’s one giant step towards
justice and dignity for abused palm oil workers.

There’s an old US trade law, the Tariff Act of 1930, which includes a
provision banning imports made with forced labor. So back in August of
2019, we co-filed a Tariff Act petition along with our partners at
GLJ-ILRF and RAN, asking US Customs and Border Protection to ban imports
of FGV palm oil to the US, citing well documented forced labour and human
rights violations.

But we couldn’t just file the official petition and hope for the best.
After more than a year of ramping up the pressure via petitions and social
media actions, US Customs and Border Protection issued a Whithold and
Release Order for FGV palm oil imported to the US, in other words, a ban
on FGV’s dirty palm oil!

[1]Excerpt from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s press release
announcing its decision on FGV’s palm oil forced labour case.

Excerpt from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s press release
announcing its decision on FGV’s palm oil forced labour case.

FGV is contesting the ban, and denying claims of forced labour. If we let
our guard down now, FGV’s army of lawyers will probably prevail, and the
worker abuse and exploitation will continue as if nothing had happened.

We can’t let this slide, John. We can’t let FGV lie to the U.S.
Customs and continue to abuse workers on its plantations in Malaysia. The
abuse is well documented and it’s horrific. Child labour, workers
subjected to physical and sexual violence, intimidation and wage and
passport retention.

With your help, we can continue to fight to obtain justice
for palm oil workers. A donation from you today will help us campaign for
fair wages, dignified, safe, and humane working conditions but also the
restitution of workers’ passports and the reimbursement of the recruitment
fees they had to pay.

[ [link removed] ]John, will you support this fight with a one-off
gift? 



Thanks for all that you do,
Fatah and the team at SumOfUs


**********
More information:

[ [link removed] ]CBP Issues Detention Order on Palm Oil Produced with Forced Labor in
Malaysia, U.S. CBP, September 30, 2020
[ [link removed] ]Malaysian palm oil giant hit with US ban over abuse concerns,
Yahoo!news, October 1, 2020

 

 

SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

Please help keep SumOfUs strong by chipping in $3. [link removed]