Bumble Bee Seafood was sued Wednesday by four Indonesian men who allege horrific treatment and forced labor aboard boats that supply the San Diego-based tuna company.
Citing violations of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, the men seek unspecified monetary damages in San Diego federal court. The four are represented by lawyers led by Washington-based Cohen Milstein aided by Greenpeace and a San Diego attorney.
Their 48-page complaint, calling for a jury trial, also wants Bumble Bee to ensure pay and improved working conditions for fishers, including 10 minimum rest hours in any 24-hour period.
The suit also demands that each vessel provide “free, accessible and secure WiFi to allow fishers to access grievance mechanisms, authorities or other sources of assistance.”
Liz Conant, a spokeswoman for Bumble Bee, told Times of San Diego via email that the seafood company owned by Taiwan-based FCF Co. Ltd (Fong Chun Formosa) had “just became aware of the filing and will not be commenting on pending litigation.”
Bumble Bee has 21 days to file a response, or answer, to the lawsuit. Parent company FCF didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plaintiffs are Akhmad, Angga (both with no last names), Muhammad Sahrudin and Muhammad Syafi’i.
Some of their allegations:
Akhmad was subjected to forced labor on the Run Da 5, part of the “trusted network” of vessels from which Bumble Bee sources its tuna.
“The captain beat Akhmad, including with a metal hook, too many times to count,” the suit says. “The captain also failed to provide medical attention when Akhmad was seriously injured — a rope broke, sending a load of fish onto Akhmad, gashing his leg to the bone. Although he was bleeding so much his boot filled with blood, the captain initially insisted Akhmad keep working.”
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Akhmad wasn’t released until his wife contacted local police, an Indonesian labor union and the International Organization for Migration, the suit says.
Angga worked on the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 878, where he says he was stabbed with a needle.
“When he returned home [after a work stoppage], he learned that his family had never received the promised pay for his many months of forced labor at sea,” the suit says.
Syafi’i, who worked on the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 211, says he received no medical care after suffering horrific burns in an accident “but was instead left to die.”
“When he did not die,” the suit says, “the captain insisted he go back to work or pay a fee to eat. Syafi’i was not permitted to leave the ship despite making multiple requests to leave so he could seek medical care, resulting in permanent injuries.”
And Sahrudin — also on the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 878 — says he was beaten so many times, he cannot recall the exact number.
“He was also lashed on his back, as were other fishers,” the suit says. “The captain ignored their requests to leave, although supply vessels came and went, until the crew joined together and refused to work if they were not repatriated.”
Greenpeace and other groups have been targeting Bumble Bee for many years, including in March 2021, when Greenpeace USA says it delivered (and later emailed) a petition containing almost 27,000 signatures calling for Bumble Bee to upgrade its human-rights policy for tuna vessels to reflect international standards and to protect fishers from human rights abuses.
Wednesday’s complaint is thought to be the first of its kind against the U.S. seafood industry.
Agnieszka Fryszman, partner at Cohen Milstein and chair of its Human Rights practice, said in a statement: “These men were looking for good jobs so they could provide for their families and build a future. Instead, they allege, they were trapped — isolated at sea, beaten with metal hooks, not getting enough food, working around the clock — and facing financial penalties if they tried to leave.
“The complaint outlines how each of them asked to be released, but were kept on board against their will — and in some cases didn’t take home a single penny for their labor.”
Fryszman added:
“As part of its effort to stamp out human trafficking and forced labor, U.S. law authorizes survivors to bring claims in the United States against the persons who benefitted from those abuses, recognizing that forced labor overseas harms U.S. companies that obey the law. Our clients are seeking justice not only for themselves but to implement changes that will protect other fishers, including men at sea right now on those same boats.”
Sari Heidenreich is senior human rights adviser for Greenpeace USA.
She said in a statement: “It is never easy for individuals to go up against large, well-resourced, and influential corporations like Bumble Bee, but these men are. … In doing so, they expose a broken system where thousands of other workers in the industrial fishing sector are trapped in conditions of human trafficking and forced labor in one of the most isolated workplaces on the planet.
“Today, I am optimistic that through this case they will get the justice they deserve and that corporations will know their power is not unmatched.”
Arifsyah Nasution is global project lead for the Beyond Seafood Campaign, Greenpeace Southeast Asia
She said: “Thanks to the courage of these individuals, Bumble Bee can no longer pretend they are doing enough to address the suffering experienced by those in their supply chain who contribute to their profits, nor evade their responsibility to protect these vulnerable workers and our oceans.”
In a news release, Cohen Milstein said $1 billion-a-year Bumble Bee has been aware of reports of forced labor in its supply chain.
“When Greenpeace USA emailed a link to one such report directly to Bumble Bee’s then-CEO Chris Lischewski, he replied, ‘As for the report on Taiwan, I have printed it but have not yet taken the time to read it. It is not high on my priority list,’” the release (and lawsuit) says.
(In June 2020, Lischewski was sentenced to 40 months in prison and fined $100,000 for his leadership role in a three-year antitrust conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna.)
In March 2023, Bumble Bee settled a lawsuit filed in District of Columbia Superior Court alleging that Bumble Bee violated the D.C. Consumers Protection Procedures Act by claiming that its tuna was produced with “fair and responsible working conditions” “when, in fact, Bumble Bee sells tuna products caught by laborers who are subjected to inhuman conditions.
Bumble Bee agreed to remove the statements “fair and safe supply chain” and “fair and responsible working conditions” from its marketing materials and to refrain from making such claims for a period of 10 years.
Besides Fryszman and Nicholas Jacques of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, other lawyers helping in the suit include Paul Hoffman and downtown San Diego attorney Helen Zeldes of Shonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes LLP and Asia Arminio of Greenpeace Inc.
The global fishing industry has been plagued by labor abuses for years.
Congress approved legislation providing the U.S. government with additional authority to crack down on forced labor in 2016 after an Associated Press investigation found that seafood caught by slaves in Southeast Asia was ending up in restaurants and markets around the United States.
In 2018, Fryszman represented two Indonesian fishermen who said they were enslaved on an American fishing boat. They settled their lawsuit for an undisclosed amount against the vessel’s California-based owner seven years after escaping and receiving special U.S. visas as victims of human trafficking.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Updated at 4:41 p.m. March 12, 2025
