Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Labor
Seafood Processing Vessel’s Operator Continues to Expose Crews to a Bounty of Safety, Health Violations
Working in the Alaskan fishing industry – an occupation already regarded as one of the nation’s most dangerous – employees aboard the F/V Pacific Producer faced dangers purely of their employer’s making, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Coast Guard has found. An inspection by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration was initially opened in July 2022 in Kodiak, Alaska, but was delayed when the F/V Pacific Producer – a 472-ton seafood processing vessel – departed the port. Through coordination with USCG’s Sector Puget Sound, a joint inspection resumed when the vessel arrived in Seattle in October. Inspectors found murky, brown water in the ship’s drinking water system; crew members being served expired food; water used to process fish leaking into dry food storage and the galley’s dining area; and other unsanitary conditions throughout the vessel. >click to read< 21:27
Declared unfit for human or animal consumption – Eighty tons of contested Bristol Bay salmon trashed in Anchorage landfill
Some 158,318 pounds of highly contested Bristol Bay salmon from the F/V Akutan have reached their final destination: the Anchorage landfill. This summer, the custom processor was supposed to process up to 100,000 pounds of salmon a day for Bristol Bay Seafoods LLC, a small group of fishermen. But nearly everything that could go wrong did. The vessel’s owner went broke, the crew wasn’t paid, and when 158,318 pounds of fish came off the boat in early September, the third-party testing group NSF declared it unfit for human or animal consumption. click here to read the story 09:17
Gloucester fish company’s owe workers $203K in damages
Kristian Kristensen and his two Harbor Loop companies — Cape Ann Seafood Exchange and Zeus Packing — must pay more than $200,000 in liquidated damages to 132 employees in a settlement over violations of overtime and record keeping. The U.S. Department of Labor said an investigation by its wage and hour division unearthed violations from October 2011 through September 2014. The probe determined Kristensen and the companies owed $203,998 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. Liquidated damages are monetary compensations for a loss or a person’s rights or property, awarded by a court judgment. click to read the story here 19:08
H-2B guest-worker program under fire over salary discrepancies
With crawfish season just around the corner, Congress’ decision to quadruple the size of a guest-worker program might be described as a gift to Louisiana’s seafood processing industry, which struggles to fill the seasonal jobs each year. But a recent report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute says the H-2B program amounts to little more than exploitation. Although employers and their lobbyists claim there is a shortage of these skilled and semi-skilled workers, wages for the Top 15 guest-worker occupations have remained flat or fallen over the past decade, said Daniel Costa, the institute’s director of immigration and policy research and author of the report. High unemployment rates persist in the top occupations, which suggests at the national level there are no labor shortages in those fields. Read the rest here 15:53
Threat of federal penalty spurs Brunswick, Harpswell to consider raising shellfish license fees
Brunswick and Harpswell are proposing higher fees for commercial shellfishing licenses in an effort to pre-empt possible legal action by the U.S. Department of Labor. Requiring licensed harvesters to work on specific conservation projects each year isn’t new for many municipalities. But the DOL has warned that the practice violates federal labor laws. Read the rest here 10:45
Rise in human trafficking impacts Hawaii – Oahu farms, Commercial fishing industry, Child Prostitution
The State Department report said forced labor on inland, coastal and deep sea fishing vessels is growing. Bryant Carvahlo, a former federal investigator with the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said the Hawaii commercial fishing industry is rife with the exploitation of illegal aliens. Read more here 08:06
Thai shrimp supplier dismisses alleged links to slave labour
Thai food giant Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods fended off allegations it was complicit in forced labour (slavery) in its supply chain, levelled by a British newspaper, a report said Saturday. Read more here 11:50
Walmart, Costco are scrambling to address the forced labor Shrimp slave investigation.
Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores and warehouse membership club leader Costco say they’re taking action in response to a news investigation that found evidence of forced labor in their Thailand-area seafood supply chains. Workers compelled to toil for years in Asia at no pay and under threat of violence are being used in the production of seafood sold by Wal-Mart, Costco and major British and European retailers, England-based The Guardian reported Tuesday. Read more here 14:31
