Seafarers are invisible to most students on campus, but not to those minoring in social justice.
For their social justice minor capstone, Allana Gladman, Nicole King, Emma Hayes and Jack Helms-Galbraith started a petition on Nov. 11 to install a campus plaque commemorating seafarers and highlighting their struggles, like unsafe working conditions.
“[Seafarers] experience so many harsh working conditions, like unequal pay, tight spaces,” Gladman said. “If they're abused, and they advocate for their abuse, then they will get abused even more, usually by the captain of the ship. They’re invisible workers in our UP community.”
The petition aims to reach 300 signatures and has garnered 257 thus far, King says.
The capstone group is working with the Pacific Coast Coalition for Seafarers (PCCS) to bring awareness to the cause and have canvassed in classes, the library and at club meetings, according to Gladman.
This isn’t the first time students have collaborated with PCCS. The Social Justice Club (SJC) previously worked with the coalition to arrange a campus vigil for Filipino seafarer AJ Meraña.
PCCS continues to advocate for seafarers through ship visits, care packages and other services.
“They provide free transportation if [seafarers] ever need to get off of the ship for any reason,” Helms-Galbraith said. “They provide legal service in cases of wage theft, for example. It’s an issue that is unfortunately pretty common.”
The capstone group emphasizes the taxing and tragic nature of seafarer work, with Hayes citing how seafarers go months without seeing or contacting their families and face labor abuse and trafficking in some cases.
“Especially if their contracts are not being respected, they can maybe be on the boat for 12, 13, 14 months away from their family,” Hayes said. “Individual seafarers are not allowed to get off the boat and visit the land [they dock on] a lot of times.”
Hayes says the plaque is important for how it accessibly spreads the students’ message for passersby.
“We have a community of college students, administrators, staff, also just people who come here and walk their dog when they come on campus,” Hayes said. “It'd be good for them to have more information [and] to be exposed to this topic, and something [that’s] going to last and be a durable thing is a plaque.”
The group hopes future social justice students continue to advocate for seafarers’ rights through other projects and events.
“I would love to have maybe a speaker on campus, or have an event, if the plaque does get put up, just to celebrate it,” King said. “If the plaque gets put up, it would be cool if we could have seafarers that are able to get shore leave [to come by], and they could come see the plaque themselves.”
Though the capstone project is coming to a close, the students are committed to continuing their advocacy for the plaque.
For more information on the plaque, contact gladman27@up.edu and kingn27@up.edu.
Reem Alshaban is a news reporter at The Beacon. She can be reached at alshaban28@up.edu.
