For example, we know that any vessel that is now being built or extended is required to have Wi-Fi. So we know that there are administrative changes that are really pushing the industry in the right direction. So we want to make sure that that’s added to that. So that’s ...

This is something that we’ve been discussing with the FAA that covers these issues. It’s on draft. We yesterday agreed to add everything good that Taiwan has done because we want it to be balanced. And we agreed completely that we should put the things that have been done.

So those are the things that I think are difficult. It’s not like we want this or that. We want all of it. And the question, you’re right, who pays for it and how do we get there?But I do think that even having access to mandatory communication with digital ...

I mean, I think it’s interesting, because when you talk about meeting with family, having children, video is important.

Okay. So we can talk about that.

The network is important. We want it all. [laughter]

Well, maybe we can talk about why. In order for freedom of association to happen, ideally workers can meet with each other and talk to each other.

Well…

And so I wanted to maybe have Mina talk a little bit about why mandatory from our point of view, and then also have the workers talk about why mandatory is in favor.

They very much want to encourage and accelerate, but we think it has to be mandatory.

I think people understand the necessity of Wi-Fi, but we still need to figure out how do we make it mandatory. The mandatory part is what we are obviously not in alignment yet with because of politics, because of economics, because of several things.

We then had a meeting with the industry yesterday and the fishers’ agency, and we’re happy to announce that it was very positive. I think they heard us, we heard them, we understood a lot from each other.

And we want to say that we have given the fishers’ agency suggestions of how it could be used to enable labor rights. Not just, okay, I can get a hold my family, which is crucial. But also how do we use it in a way in which, for example, ...

And of course, everything led us to the moment of two days ago where we visited the Premier, and the fishers brought their petition directly to him, and he had everybody involved in the sector there from the government side, so we were very pleased with that. And he was ...

Last week, we also went to Indonesia to talk to different stakeholders there, agencies, the trade unions involved in this water fishing and so on.

So we wanted to show you that because we’ve been globally very active.

And then, this is one picture of several, but we went to meet the American Federation of Labor and Congress Industrial Organizations, called the AFL-CIO, which is a federation of all the unions, Teamsters, actors, screenwriters, everybody is part of it. And here, we met with Asian Pacific and American ...

The U.S. State Department was also, you know, they have a labor side. They were meeting with us.

We’ve been pushing hard, and you can see we also talked to the U.S. Deputy Undersecretary for Internal Affairs, Thea, who is a great champion really. She made her speech in Boston about this campaign, which is, you know, again, very amazing.

We then also had to do our part in the U.S., and so we went to visit the U.S. trade representatives and people in charge of the negotiation to talk about why we needed to make sure that in the language there was a provision to enable fisher’s rights and ...

One is the labor rights and one is the migrants within that. And so we, you know, Yi-hsiang and Lennon in particular have been really pushing there the issue of migrant workers and migrant fishers.

But soon, soon, yeah. So the negotiations here are the chapter on labor, and there are two main things here.

Of course, of course you’re part of that too. You are the reason.

Then as you know, there is a U.S. trade and Taiwan initiative.

Then we went to the city of Barcelona, which is a very, was, a very progressive city. They just, their election, you know, but they were very committed to helping us do maybe a fisher’s gathering, you know. Again, understanding that their expo is there but opening out the space ...

And that was great because it was the first time a fisher had ever been invited to speak inside the expo. So it was quite a historic moment and there we had the big trade union federations. This is ITF, the transport one, and IUF, which is all the one ...

Then we were invited by the American Bureau of International Labor Affairs. They invited FOSPI to speak at the global seafood expo in Barcelona.

But what we did is that we asked the NGOs from inside to come out and then the trade unions of the U.S., of Massachusetts, because Massachusetts is the seafood center of the U.S., really. They came and we did, you know, a very peaceful but nice discussion outside.

Then we took the campaign to Boston. And this is where the Seafood Expo of North America is, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been, well, you’ve been to probably expos of tech. It’s like all the technology, but there’s no workers to be seen here. It’s the same ...

Then we had a wonderful visit with you. And from there we also started engaging the, you know, the EU.

The difficulty was things like, what would happen if workers get bad news and how, you know, then they have to send them back? And that’s difficult, they’re in the middle of the ocean. So, you know, understanding their concerns, which were valid and we needed to hear them and ...

And then we met with a lot of associations as, you know, we really tried to engage the industry to understand what they think, why it’s difficult, and, you know, all sorts of things came up, right?

We did a lot of workshops and things like that, and then we launched, as you know, in February, and in February, we launched in Taiwan.

And we also had a petition that we all were moving. So there are people from Taiwan, and the U.S. and so on. And then the fishers’ petition, which they can talk about. And so we did that, you know, at least when there’s no Wi-Fi.

So there are a thousand fishers that signed. It’s very long work every time they dock, right? Here it is.

And so we did surveys, we did a petition, which we didn’t bring you a copy of, I don’t think. Do we have a copy of the petition? Yeah, I think we do.

It’s important because FOSPI has been doing a survey. So they surveyed 500 workers, I think in 20 days, last time I read. And, you know, this is at the vessel level what they’ve done, right?

And, you know, we are right now talking a lot about the value of this industry. It’s, you know, one billion. The value chain goes from, obviously, Indonesia sending workers, workers in agencies, agencies go to another agency, that agency works for vessel owners, the vessel owners sell to another ...

And then this is obviously our friend Yi-hsiang, wonderful, and then Lennon’s organization. And so we have been campaigning from the beginning. We’re the family that is pushing hard.

We’re doing international work. Stella Maris is our Father Ari. He’s part of MENA.

Oh, my gosh. Yes, but I need the Internet.

I think we started very much, and I had a digital because I was like, I want to meet Audrey. I better have digital. And, of course, now it’s not working because I have no Wi-Fi, so I will go back to analog. It’s very important. And I’m sorry, do ...

We wanted just to share a little bit about where we are.

Taiwan is not the only one responsible. We all in our country, especially in the U.S., where our organization is based, we’ve been doing a lot of work there and will continue to, let’s say, push the brands to reward if a country is doing the right thing. So that’s ...

And the third part of this is keeping corporations and brands really accountable. And you know, so we work with governments, but we’re really pushing on them, especially the ones that make the most profit, to really be responsible as well.

The second thing we do is really advance laws and policies that support decent work and just migration, because migration structures really also make the vulnerability of workers quite structural. So those things go together. They’re not separate.

We are working in three areas. One area is definitely, let’s say, building worker organizations and helping workers build their own unions and/or worker organizations. That’s the most important part, because no matter what laws we win or something like that, if the workers cannot enforce it and really monitor ...

I am the Deputy Director of Global Labor Justice, which is a global organization, international organization, fighting for labor rights.

No, no, no, whatever. I’m Mexican, so I have a Mexican name.

Doing a lot of new work in Indonesia as well, which is very exciting. Great. I’m Valerie Alzaga, with an “a”, but it’s okay.