Unions representing more than 129,000 fishers are gathering in Amsterdam this week to set their agenda for advancing fishers’ rights, safety and working conditions.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation’s (ITF) Fisheries Section Conference brings together 89 fishers’ unions from 59 countries, alongside activists from fishers’ rights networks and academic leaders, to mark progress and shape the next five years of action.
‘Fisheries remains a sector where the fundamental labour rights of workers are routinely trampled on, particularly of those in and from the global south,’ said Johnny Hansen, ITF Fisheries Section Chair.
This is an industry that exhibits some of the highest levels of exploitation, with 128,000 fishers trapped aboard fishing vessels in situations of forced labour, according to estimates in September by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
At least 24,000 fishers are believed to killed each year at work with many more seriously injured according to estimates from the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.
In the UK, despite making up 55% of the industry workforce, migrant fishers work longer hours for less pay than locals and are fearful of speaking out even as 35% report being subjected to violence at work. This treatment of migrant fishers, where they do not have the same rights as local workers, is commonplace globally.
‘With ever-expanding fishing fleets particularly in China, irresponsible fishing practices and mounting pressure to cut costs across supply chains – we have seen the exploitation of fishers spread to every corner of the globe’, said Johnny Hansen, who joined the industry as a crewman in 1982, and commented that across the world governments have allowed businesses to compete unchecked, with little protection in place for workers across their supply chains.
‘Governments disregard labour safeguards to encourage and increase competition. Instead of protecting the fundamental labour rights of fishers, they have let corporations pursue methods to get products to market more cheaply at the expense of workers, further eroding fishers’ already exploitatively low labour standards,’ he said.
‘This is why our agenda has shifted. It is only possible through building workers’ power across supply chains and ensuring that all actors including governments, seafood companies and retailers are held accountable for the labour standards from the top to the bottom of fisheries supply chains.’
The conference comes at a time where supply chain accountability is increasingly important to a new generation of ethical consumers, and when many governments are strengthening laws and legalisation on accountability, transparency and human rights due diligence.