At Port of Tacoma, unions step in to help foreign seafarers get paid

When grain-carrying ship ASL Uranus docked in the Port of Tacoma this month, 15 Burmese seafarers spoke up: They hadn’t been paid in full for seven months, unlike their Chinese and Vietnamese co-workers. Unions stepped in to help and ensure the workers’ safety.

“There’s no government agency in the world that’s looking after [the workers],” said Jared Faker, president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23. “So really just other workers have to look out for them.”

ITF and the Liberian flag state negotiated an agreement with Agricore Group to ensure the payment of wages and guarantee the workers’ safety after they departed the U.S.

Faker drafted letters to Washington’s congressional delegation, the Coast Guard and law enforcement in case the seafarers needed to be escorted off the ship and flown directly home for safety. The ILWU would not have waited for “all the red tape to clear” to extract the seafarers if they decided to leave the ship