Forced labor in Chilean salmon industry: Unions and communities confirm labor abuses and human rights abuses
- «The salmon industry has been very intelligent, but also very abusive in using different ways to influence the democratic system and the media. It is a kind of new slavery, in which the workers are frightened with the possibility of unemployment, and if there is no work, there could be periods of hunger».
- The union leaders of Fesimar denounce that «the workers who dare to denounce these irregularities related to health, safety and labor rights suffer persecution by their employers, in some cases being sued by the employers in the labor courts to request their dismissal.
Puerto Montt, Chile, November 14, 2024. (Radiodelmar.cl). «I have been working in the salmon production industry for 20 years. Although working conditions have improved somewhat, there is still forced labor in the industry. An example of this is subcontracting, precarious and temporary contracts ‘for work or task’. Also, long working hours and rotating shifts are still in place, along with union persecution practices,» Gustavo Cortés Solis, union leader of salmon workers in the Chiloé archipelago, told Radio de Mar.
Cortés added that «the salmon industry has been very intelligent, but also very abusive, in implementing various forms of influence on the democratic system and the media. It is a kind of new slavery, in which the workers are frightened by the possibility of unemployment, and that if there is no work, there could be periods of famine».
The leader of the workers of the Los Lagos region, where 35.5% of Chile’s salmon export production is produced, which already reaches about one million tons per year at a value of 6.5 billion dollars per year, pointed out that «as a workers’ organization, we have suffered all this precariousness.
In recent years, the salmon industry has created union organizations that do not defend decent work, but on the contrary, protect the interests of the employers. These organizations, controlled by the salmon businessmen, do not defend the just rights of the workers. They accept the discipline imposed by the employers and are not free to express their opinions. Nor do they accept to negotiate improvements in working conditions. They only act in organized protests to defend the interests of the industry,» Cortés told radiodelmar.cl.
Deregulated work on vessels in the salmon farming area
The leader of the workers of the Los Lagos region, where 35.5% of Chile’s salmon export production is produced, which already reaches about one million tons per year at a value of 6.5 billion dollars per year, pointed out that «as a workers’ organization, we have suffered all this precariousness.
In recent years, the salmon industry has created union organizations that do not defend decent work, but on the contrary, protect the interests of the employers. These organizations, controlled by the salmon businessmen, do not defend the just rights of the workers. They accept the discipline imposed by the employers and are not free to express their opinions. Nor do they accept to negotiate improvements in working conditions. They only act in organized protests to defend the interests of the industry,» Cortés told radiodelmar.cl.
In addition, «workers are forced to comply with a so-called ‘polyfunctionality’ that is not specified in their employment contracts. Therefore, they have to perform functions that do not correspond to them,» the seamen’s leader said.
The crew members and workers denounce the small and precarious living quarters on the ships, as well as the inadequate and poor quality of food. The high and constant noise pollution and the presence of loud noises caused by the engines and generators inside the ships are part of the extreme and aggressive working environment that violates the minimum standards of occupational health and safety to which they are subjected in order to earn a salary at the end of the month.
“This is worse and more extreme on smaller cargo ships, where the naval, labor, health and environmental authorities do not even do their job of oversight,” said the crew members interviewed.
Fear and anti-union practices as disciplining tool in the Workplace
The leaders of Fesimar denounce that «workers who dare to denounce these irregularities related to health, safety and labor rights are persecuted by their employers, who in some cases take them to the labor courts to request their dismissal, which causes great economic damage to the persecuted workers after they are subjected to legal proceedings, many of which are unfounded».
Processing plant workers: The weakest and most invisible link in the salmon enclave in southern Chile
Another highly vulnerable sector in the mega-salmon production and export industry are the workers in the processing plants, many of whom are heads of households and have minimal bargaining power with their employers.
Among the countries producing farmed salmon, Chile is the world’s second largest producer with 36% of the supply. However, it is the salmon-producing country with the longest working hours, the lowest wages, the highest rates of labor violations, and the highest rates of workplace accidents and deaths among its workers, with 76 workers expected to die between 2013 and 2023.
Radio del Mar interviewed a former salmon industry worker who spent more than 10 years in the salmon farms. Now she has returned to being a harvester, fisherwoman, fisherwoman and grower of vegetables, potatoes and other fruits of the land. She points out that “in the salmon industry there are forms of forced labor. It is almost slave labor. As a woman from Chiloé who worked for more than a decade in the salmon industry, I have had to listen to my son tell me: ‘Mom, I won’t work in the salmon industry anymore, the salmon industry eats your life and you don’t have time for socializing’…”. This worker asked not to publish her name for fear of reprisals for her family.
Urge the global marketplace to be vigilant in the face of serious human rights abuses that threaten sustainable, fair and reliable trade.
Several citizen and research organizations have worked to document working conditions and respect for human rights in the intensive salmon farming mega-industry in southern Chile. These documents expose abusive practices, precarious labor safety conditions, and/or have investigated this export sector for its level of compliance with standards of protection and respect for human rights by the state and companies.
These reports include “Blood Salmon”, from Ecoceanos, and reports from the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Human Rights Center of the University Diego Portales. In April 2024, these findings were confirmed by the report presented in Geneva, Switzerland, by David Boyd, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, who visited Chile in 2023.
The recent dissemination of the results of the research «Made in Chile: Forced Labor and Labor Exploitation in the Salmon Industry» by the Fundación Libera, shows the non-compliance with the pillars of any system that respects human rights, such as the accountability of business actors in their duty to respect the fundamental rights of workers, citizens and local communities where they operate.
The existence of forms of forced labor in salmon farming centers in southern Chile is not consistent with the minimum standards of respectful social action of an industry that is the second largest producer of salmon in the world.
«We urge Chilean society and international actors in the global market to pay attention to this serious situation, which jeopardizes and violates the basic principles that underpin sustainable, fair and reliable international trade, such as the duty of companies to respect human rights, responsible business conduct, transparency, accountability, due diligence along the supply chain, respect for scientific production and the prohibition of the use of forced labor,» the Libera Foundation said in a recent statement.
These serious situations, classified as forced labor by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct, are rejected by trade union organizations.
