Pretty horrifying article here about people trafficking and forced labour on Thai fishing boats.
The article specifically names Thai Union Frozen Products as a company who buy fish from slave boats. This was co-founded by Cheng Niruttinanon, and the Niruttinanon group remains a major shareholder. Narin Niruttinanon, son of Cheng, is our present majority shareholder, and Deputy General Manager of a Thai Union subsidiary - he also owns a whopping 0.7% of the parent company. This is his day job.
I don't want to get unduly hysterical, so here is the company's response (from the NYT article):
Sasinan Allmand, the head of corporate communications for Thai Union Frozen Products, said that her company does routine audits of its canneries and boats in port to ensure against forced and child labor. The audits involve checking crew members’ contracts, passports, proof of payment and working conditions. “We will not tolerate any human trafficking or any human rights violation of any kind,” she said. Asked whether audits are conducted on the fishing boats that stay at sea, like the one where Mr. Long was captive, she declined to respond.
They've just pledged to audit their shrimp supply chain: http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/07 ... d-by-2016/
Seems fairly likely that one of our major shareholders wouldn't be quite so rich if his company didn't benefit from modern-day slavery, to say the least. At least they're making the right noises, but I think this is pretty embarrassing for them and, by extension, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday. Important not to get carried away, we're not owned by a professional trafficker or anything, but this is probably the closest to actual scandal we'll get.
this made me laugh, i dont even know why