Sign now: the U.S. government needs to hear us
From freedom United
| We need your voice. On August 15, we’ll be delivering our petition to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, asking them to block imports of FGV palm oil linked to forced labor. Your signature will strengthen our collective power as concerned consumers who want to keep forced labor off the supermarket shelves. |
| Sign now |
| We’re coming up to the one-year mark – August 15 – since our partners, the International Labor Rights Forum, Rainforest Action Network, and SumofUs filed a formal complaint to U.S. Customs and Border Protection asking them to issue a Withhold and Release Order against imports of FGV palm oil – effectively keeping it out of the United States. It takes approximately 12-18 months for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to investigate and issue a decision on a complaint. That’s why it’s crucial that we make this push and petition delivery at the one-year mark. If we can collectively show that consumers like you reject buying goods produced using forced labor, there’s a good chance we can convince the U.S. government to take action. Add your name now. When we launched our campaign last year against Malaysian palm oil company, FGV, we called out clear human rights violations. Independent audits of their plantations uncoveredsevere red flag indicators of forced labor — including passport retention, unfair termination clauses, and debt bondage. FGV promised to clean up its act, but earlier this year the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – an industry certification body – resuspended FGV’s Sawit Serting millafter “unsatisfactory” findings from audits. Specifically, the RSPO found that pay and work conditions were not aligned with domestic labor laws and that FGV had failed to prevent migrant workers from paying exploitative recruitment feesand that workers were not adequately informed of their working conditions.[1] We’ve seen the recent effectiveness of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Withhold and Release Order mechanism to block other goods made with forced labor from coming into the United States. In 2020, they seized imports of hair accessories from Xinjiang, China tied to the mass detention and forced labor of Uyghurs and most recently blocked surgical gloves from Malaysian company Top Glove.[2][3]In both of these cases, public outcry and mobilization from anti-trafficking NGOs helped make this possible. Now’s our chance to make sure U.S. Customs and Border Protection hears our voice, demanding that palm oil made with forced labor should not be brought into the country.Consumers deserve better, to know that the products we buy that are made using palm oil – shampoo, soap, cooking oil, chocolate, lipstick and even pizza dough – are free from modern slavery. Sign today! In solidarity, Herrana and the Freedom United team |
