One year after being allegedly stranded by their employer in a Westport, Wash., marina, six migrant workers still haven’t returned home to their families.
Reyner Dagalea and Norberto Cabrera wearily flopped down on their couch after a long Saturday shift of janitorial work. Behind them, fishing crewmate-turned-roommate Richard Zambales prepared a cup of instant coffee in the kitchen of their shared Seattle home. He adjusted his coveralls before hurrying out the door to his own weekend shift as a janitor.
Usually, Dagalea and Cabrera would attend service at the Filipino-American Community Church, but this Sunday marked their first day off in a while. They have picked up every hour they can to send money back to their families in the Philippines. They say working holds back the homesickness between the video calls and WhatsApp messages.
The men find themselves in limbo. Again.
It’s been nearly a year since Dagalea, Cabrera, Zambales and 21 of their crewmates docked in Washington after fishing a tuna season for California-based McAdam’s Fish. Cascade PBS previously detailed the crews’ three months in the Westport Marina in late 2023, leading at least six workers to accuse their employer of abandonment and wage theft.
Chris Williams, a fisheries expert and marine socioeconomic specialist for the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), said the Philippines has forged ahead of other countries, but at the same time, “They’re sending so many people abroad every year, they can’t possibly be doing their due diligence in every single instance.”
Williams said one of the most substantial actions a country can take is ratifying the ILO’s Work in Fishing Convention, which neither the United States nor the Philippines has done.
“One of the first countries to ratify the Work in Fishing Convention was Argentina, where all of their main industrial export fisheries are covered by collective bargaining agreements from unions that are affiliated to the ITF,” he said. “And if you read those collective bargaining agreements, I mean – the first time I read one of the Argentinian ones, I was actually crying with laughter because I couldn’t believe how good their conditions of work were.”