Global Labor Justice - International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF) today announced it filed suit against Bumble Bee Foods, LLC – North America’s largest canned tuna brand and subsidiary of Fong Chun Formosa Fishery Company, Ltd. (FCF), a Taiwan-based seafood trader ranked as one of the top three in the world – over its false and deceptive marketing claims that it sources its tuna through a “fair and safe supply chain.”

GLJ-ILRF’s lawsuit alleges significant evidence that the canned-fish giant’s supply chain is rife with forced labor and worker safety violations and demands Bumble Bee show that advertising is backed up by meaningful practices to protect workers, or otherwise cease making the deceptive marketing claims....

The lawsuit details evidence that Bumble Bee and its main supplier and parent company FCF have a long history of engaging in or allowing unfair and dangerous labor practices in the commercial fishing of the tuna consumers find behind the Bumble Bee label. Fishing vessels in FCF’s supply chain employ fishing methods that are inherently dangerous, such as distant water fishing and transhipment. Working conditions in supply chains reportedly involve up to 34-hour workdays, inadequate sleep, withheld wages, and little to no food. In addition, there have been various documented instances of forced labor; illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing; and even deaths of workers.

Despite the well-documented abuses, which are detailed in the complaint, Bumble Bee’s marketing and advertising claim the company is “best-in-class” when it comes to worker safety standards and that its “mission” is to “champion sustainable fishing” throughout its supply chain...

GLJ-ILRF brought suit under the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act, which allows public interest non-profit organizations to bring consumer protection claims on behalf of consumers and the general public...