The Thai Tuna Industry Association and Stella Maris Thailand signed a three-year agreement Oct. 12 in Bangkok aimed at strengthening labor protections for fishery workers and seafarers in Thailand’s tuna industry.
Stella Maris Thailand is the maritime outreach arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand.
The memorandum of understanding establishes a framework for cooperation on workers’ rights, welfare and working conditions, including information sharing, ship visits, grievance response, rights education and the dissemination of fair employment practices.
The agreement runs through Sept. 30, 2029, and covers crew members aboard foreign transshipment carriers transporting frozen tuna as well as Thai-flagged purse seine vessels targeting skipjack tuna.
Thailand is described in the agreement as the world’s leading exporter of processed tuna, with Thai Tuna Industry Association member companies accounting for more than 90% of the country’s exports, including canned tuna, frozen cooked tuna loins and tuna-derived pet food.
“Protecting workers’ rights is an essential pillar of a sustainable tuna industry. Stella Maris Thailand’s extensive frontline experience visiting seafarers will allow both parties to exchange critical insights, understand issues on the ground, and actively promote fair employment throughout our supply chain,” said Dr. Chanin Chalisarapong, president of the association.
The cooperation also links international labor standards, digital traceability and the Bio-Circular-Green economy model with direct support for workers.
Under the agreement, the two organizations will jointly monitor and share information on shipboard working conditions, labor rights and crew welfare.
They will also conduct visits to vessels to hear workers’ concerns and provide advice, coordinate responses to grievances, educate seafarers about labor protections and legal assistance channels, and share operational outcomes across the association’s corporate network.
Apinya Tajit, deputy director of Stella Maris Thailand, outlined the five areas of cooperation as information exchange, ship visits and pastoral support, fact verification, rights education and best-practice dissemination.
Stella Maris Thailand was represented at the signing by Bishop Siripong Charatsri, vice president of Caritas Thailand, and Father Rock Phairat Sriprasert, secretary-general of Caritas Thailand and national director of Stella Maris Thailand.
They were joined by Caritas Thailand Secretariat member Jirawat Chenphasook, Tajit, and Stella Maris field teams from Si Racha, Rayong and Bangkok.
The Thai Tuna Industry Association delegation included Dr. Adisorn Promthep, former director-general of the Department of Fisheries and an association adviser, and labor adviser Atthaphan Masrangsan.
For Stella Maris, the partnership reflects its commitment to maritime justice and the Catholic Church’s social teaching on the dignity and rights of workers.
“Stella Maris Thailand is ready to contribute its frontline experience with seafarers, so crew members understand their rights and access appropriate care. This cooperation reflects the biblical mandate to treat workers justly—as Scripture reminds us in James 5:4 of the cries of workers whose wages have been withheld,” Sriprasert said.
The initiative also draws on Pope Francis’ message to maritime workers that they are “not alone and not forgotten,” first delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020 and later reaffirmed at the 25th World Congress of Stella Maris in Glasgow.
The source material also links the initiative to the Catholic Church’s tradition of labor teaching, citing Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum and Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Huminitas, which it said emphasizes the dignity of human work, fair remuneration and the priority of human lives over capital accumulation.
The agreement is voluntary and non-binding and allows the industry association and Stella Maris Thailand to cooperate on labor concerns while maintaining their independent roles.
