February 12, 2025 — A group of labor activist organizations have sent an open letter to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) pushing the seafood certifier to do more to combat forced labor incidents.
The letter was sent by the Seafood Working Group (SWG), a coalition of labor rights groups comprising Global Labor Justice, International Transport Workers’ Federation, Humanity United, Freedom Fund, and Greenpeace US. The letter said the MSC needs to do more to combat “rampant labor abuse” in the seafood industry, and criticized the MSC’s stance on the ecolabel not offering assurances that there is no forced or child labor within its fisheries.