Dear John,

As the world marked International Migrants Day this week, we are reminded that migrants are among the most vulnerable workers in the global economy. Many flee extreme poverty only to find themselves exploited, unprotected, and even trapped in debt bondage.

ILRF is standing with migrant workers as they fight for their rights in the global economy. Will you please make a generous donation to ILRF during this season of giving? [link removed]

In Thailand, migrant workers make up the majority of the workforce in the country’s six million dollar seafood export industry. Yet the workers who catch, process, and package seafood endure extremely dangerous and coercive working conditions, such as restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats of being reported to authorities, or physical or psychological violence. These young men and women – who have migrated from Myanmar and Cambodia to provide for their families – often end up in situations of forced labor or human trafficking.

ILRF is calling for basic labor law protections and rights for migrant workers to organize unions in the Thai seafood industry. Please help sustain this work in 2020 with a donation today: [link removed]

We are standing with migrant worker organizations in Thailand that are building power with workers and defending their rights despite innumerable obstacles and repression. In October, after years of hard work and exposés by civil society organizations to bring attention to workers’ plight in Thailand, the U.S. government suspended $1.3 billion in trade benefits for many Thai imports due to ongoing labor rights violations, particularly the repression of workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. These rights that are so essential to enabling workers to speak out when they are abused are broadly restricted under Thai labor law, especially for migrant workers. ILRF coordinates the Seafood Working Group, which brought together 24 organizations this month to call on the Thai government to ensure all workers’ fundamental rights. We also urged multinational companies to take action; amazingly, their supply chain codes of conduct say they guarantee these rights, yet they have been silent on the laws that disable these rights.

Your donation today will help strengthen our advocacy efforts in 2020 at this crucial moment. Help us keep up the pressure on governments and hold companies accountable to respecting workers’ rights in their supply chains.

Thank you for all you do for worker justice.

In solidarity,

Elena Arengo
Senior Corporate Accountability Analyst

P.S. If you are not yet part of our pool of monthly donors, please join today. Whether you contribute the price of a coffee, a movie ticket, or more, it means so much to us that you’re with us in this fight for the long haul. [link removed]

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Please consider joining ILRF as a monthly donor to help sustain our ability to stand with labor rights defenders around the world: [link removed]

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