Blog: Indonesia

Migrant Fishers in Taiwan Take Wi-Fi Now For Fishers’ Rights Campaign International

March 12, 2023

March 12, 2023

Migrants from across Asia work in Taiwan’s fishing fleet, catching seafood we eat every day. Working under harsh conditions and often facing danger, violence and abuse on the job, thousands of fishers have come together in a new campaign to demand fundamental labor rights.

On March 12, 2023, they took their campaign internationally, gathering with local and international NGO and labor allies in front of the Seafood Expo North America at the Boston Convention Center to demand that responsible sourcing of seafood that respects fundamental labor rights as set forth in ILO conventions and wi-fi access for all fishers on distant-water vessels be at the heart of the conversation about the global seafood industry.

Fight the Heist: Asian Unions Join Forces with GLJ-ILRF & Asia Floor Wage Alliance in Campaign to Stop Nike, Levi’s & VF Corp. from Funneling Stolen Pandemic Wages toward Buybacks

February 27, 2023
Fight the Heist Campaign logo depicting women garment workers with raised fists confronting an agressive Wall Street Bull

Garment supply chain workers, a majority of them women, faced massive wage theft and income loss during the COVID-19 pandemic when Big Fashion brands’ like Nike canceled or drastically reduced orders en masse (as detailed in Asia Floor Wage Alliance’s (AFWA) Money Heist report).

Meanwhile, Wall Street investors and owners made record profits and paid themselves millions of dollars through stock buybacks.

How Anti-Sweatshop Activists and Unions Made Severance Pay Mandatory

September 27, 2017

In August last year Iris Montoya came to work at the Rio Garment factory in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where she had worked as a sewing machine operator for 11 years. At 11 a.m., the factory lights shut off and management escorted the workers outside, locking the doors behind them.

Management announced that the factory was shutting down operations that very day. Panic broke out. Workers were told to go home, barred from retrieving their belongings, and left without their last week’s pay.

Three weeks later, when Montoya went to the hospital for foot surgery, she was denied coverage. Management had been deducting insurance from workers’ paychecks for the past five months but had not been depositing the money into the health care system.

Time to Unleash the Power of the U.S National Contact Point

September 26, 2017

One of the many items in the packed agenda at the UN General Assembly in New York last week was the establishment of more concrete standards for companies seeking to do business sustainably in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. More and more top business leaders are seeking guidance on how to ensure good corporate behavior. But the UN standards are not the only resource to CEOs that want to make environmental and social protection part of their business model.

Workers Give Message to RSPO: Don’t Certify Abuse!

November 14, 2013

Medan, Indonesia—This week hundreds of oil palm workers and their allies crashed the 11th annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a multi-stakeholder organization that promotes “sustainable” palm oil, to protest the organization’s failure to uphold its own labor standards. 

Arriving in colorful rain jackets on motorbikes and small pick-ups, the protesters braved a torrential downpour to deliver a blunt message to the RSPO: Stop certifying worker exploitation.

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