The Canned Tuna Brand Facing Horrifying Allegations From Its Fishermen

The global fishing industry already has a poor reputation for working conditions, but a new lawsuit being filed against one of the biggest tuna brands alleges some truly shocking treatment. According to The New York Times, The lawsuit is being brought against Bumble Bee Foods in California by victims who claim they were held in a form of fishing boat slavery aboard vessels contracted by the company. The suit is being brought by four Indonesian men, who say that Bumble Bee was aware of and benefited from the abuse they suffered, per CNN. According to a lawyer representing them, it is the first case tackling fishing boat slavery that has ever been filed in the United States.

The plaintiffs allege that after being recruited in Indonesia (where most of the world's tuna is produced), they were held against they will for months and subject to repeated physical abuse. One crew member alleges that he was denied medical treatment and even food after receiving severe oil burns, while others allege that they were lashed, beaten, stabbed with needles, and forced to continue working after receiving severe laceration that cut their leg down to the bone. The victims also claim that they were given so little food that they had to resort to eating the bait. Tuna ships often spend months at sea, and repeated attempts to quit and get off the fishing boat were supposedly denied by their supervisors. Bumble Bee has not yet responded to the allegations and said it will not comment on current litigation.

While the allegations against Bumble Bee are horrifying, this lawsuit is only a glimpse into the rampant abuse that has dogged the tuna industry as a whole. As tuna fishing has been outsourced to foreign countries, it has become harder for labor regulations to protect workers. About 80% of American tuna is produced overseas, and the fishermen are often migrant workers. Tuna ships will often be refueled by other boats that will also unload their catches, so the ships spend months at sea, which makes laws hard to enforce. While companies claim that tuna fishing is sustainable, Bumble Bee was recently forced to take down claims on its website that its supply chain was safe and fair.

Like the victims in the current lawsuit, who had half of their $320 a month salary withheld from them, migrant workers are often brought on to tuna boats by recruiters who end up withholding huge portions of the workers salary to create a form of debt bondage. The current victims were also threatened with additional fines if they quit. The global tuna industry is worth about $40 billion, and a United Nations agency estimates that at a minimum, 128,000 people are trapped in similar forced labor situations, with the number likely being much higher. The plaintiffs say that they are trying to bring more attention to the plight of workers on these ships in the hope that more won't suffer.