Fish+ in a Good Food Nation: Livelihoods at Sea

Aquatic foods (or fish+ as we like to call them) often get left out of food systems policy and practice. This masks the opportunities and challenges aquatic foods can bring in our transition to more socially and environmentally just food systems. 

Join us for the second webinar in our series to learn about about how workers' rights intersect with the fish+ sector, featuring Oska Paul and Chris Williams. We will explore the realities of labour in the sector, from exploitation risks to the role of trade unions, and what could be done to build a more just aquatic food system.

Oska Paul is a Policy Officer at the Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX). Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) is a workers' rights organisation dedicated to identifying and transforming the systems and structures that enable labour exploitation to occur. Through evidence-based research and advocacy, FLEX works across a number of high-risk sectors, including agriculture, hospitality, cleaning, social care and fishing. It places workers at the centre of its work by collaborating closely with people who have experienced labour exploitation in the UK. Oska has been involved in migrant-justice initiatives as a community organiser, legal advisor, policy officer, and academic researcher in both the UK and Greece since 2014.

Chris Williams is the fisheries section coordinator at The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), representing the 150,000 fisher members of ITFs 90 affiliated fishers Unions. Chris has been at ITF since January 2021. Before that he worked as a fisheries researcher for the new economics foundation for ten years. Chris has worked in fisheries and community development projects since 2004 and has been a member of Unite the Union for 22 years

The ITF is a democratic, affiliate-led federation recognised as the world’s leading transport authority, connecting more than 730 affiliated trade unions from 150 countries to secure rights, equality and justice for workers' globally. ITF the voice for nearly 16.5 million transport workers across the world.