Migrant fishers, unions and allies across the world are currently campaigning to help migrant fishers in Taiwanese distant water fishing to unionise, win collective bargaining agreements and access WI-FI communication while at sea during their long 10-month trips.
The fishing sector is one of the most abusive and under-represented in the labour movement with a 3% unionisation level world wide. Many workers are unable to even contact a union and raise an alarm when facing danger or health and safety violations.
This discussion, hosted by the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney, will highlight Global Labor Justice’s campaign to strengthen fishers' labour rights, including the work being done to help migrant workers build unions in hostile environments, building cross-national alliances and the role of international labour standards.
Valery Alzaga is the Deputy Director of Global Labor Justice and a labour and migrant rights campaigner and organiser with more than 20 years of organising experience across a range of different sectors -- including property services, care, transport, health, retail, IT, renewable energies and auto-manufacturing. She started as an organiser with the Justice for Janitors campaign before going on to shape many other campaigns working for unions and civil society organisations.
Jonathan Parhusip is a doctoral student at the Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, researching employment practices, solidarity, and activism of Southeast Asian migrant fishers on Taiwanese fishing vessels. Previously, he worked as an interpreter for an Indonesian labour union and a researcher and consultant for Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN) and Humanity Research Consultancy in Taiwan. Currently, he serves as GLJ-ILRF’s campaign organiser for the Wi-Fi Now for Migrant Fishers’ Rights! campaign.
