Procter & Gamble’s business partner FGV has been
banned from importing palm oil to the US -- thanks to your action,
and a law that’s almost 100 years old!
Vladimir, you just dealt a massive blow to one of the worst
workers rights offenders in the palm oil industry. That’s one giant
step towards justice and dignity for abused palm oil workers.
There’s an old US trade law, the Tariff Act of 1930,
which includes a provision banning imports made with forced
labor. So back in August of 2019, we co-filed a Tariff Act
petition along with our partners at GLJ-ILRF and RAN, asking US
Customs and Border Protection to ban imports of FGV palm oil to the
US, citing well documented forced labour and human rights
violations.
But we couldn’t just file the official petition and hope for the
best. After more than a year of ramping up the pressure via
petitions and social media actions, US Customs and Border Protection
issued a Whithold and Release Order for FGV palm oil imported to the
US, in other words, a ban on FGV’s dirty palm
oil!
Excerpt from the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection’s press release announcing its decision on FGV’s
palm oil forced labour case.
FGV is contesting the ban, and denying claims of forced labour.
If we let our guard down now, FGV’s army of lawyers will probably
prevail, and the worker abuse and exploitation will continue as if
nothing had happened.
We can’t let this slide. We can’t let FGV lie to the U.S.
Customs and continue to abuse workers on its plantations in
Malaysia. The abuse is well documented and it’s horrific.
Child labour, workers subjected to physical and sexual violence,
intimidation and wage and passport retention.
With your help, we can continue
to fight to obtain justice for palm oil workers. A donation
from you today will help us campaign for fair wages, dignified,
safe, and humane working conditions but also the restitution of
workers’ passports and the reimbursement of the recruitment fees
they had to pay.
will
you support this fight with a one-off gift?
