Deep-Sea Fishers Fight for Wi-Fi (404media.co) 57
Indonesian migrant fishermen working in Taiwan's distant-water fishing fleet are trapped in brutal conditions that strip away basic human communication. Sailors spend up to 10 months at sea, working 22-hour days with no internet access, unable to contact families or report workplace hazards. A coalition of labor rights groups, 404 Media, is pushing to mandate Wi-Fi on ships, challenging an industry that intentionally isolates workers and prevents them from seeking help or organizing.
Basic human communication? (Score:3, Funny)
Pr0n.
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Louie: Hey, I thought you said Troy McClure was dead?
Fat Tony: No, what I said is that he sleeps with the fishes! You see...
Louie: Uh, Tony, please, no. I just ate a whole plate of dingamagoo.
Porn is also a legit request (Score:2)
10 months at sea? Wouldn't you want Pr0n too???
A lot of these men are young. They need release and after 10 months, the imagination can only take you so far. A lonely man with a well drained nutsack is much less likely to lose his temper...even if it's not porn...maybe he misses his kids or dog...a connection with his home, family, or even just porn can really reduce hostility and antisocial tendencies.
The last thing I want to do is work with sexually frustrated heterosexual men on a cramped vessel for 10 months at a time.
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The last thing I want to do is work with sexually frustrated heterosexual men on a cramped vessel for 10 months at a time.
There's a good White House joke in there somewhere... :-)
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Facetime doesn't work very well over shortwave. Even expeditions to Antarctica have the opportunity to video call their families.
Re: Soon in Amurrikah (Score:2, Insightful)
It is exactly like a certain phase of Nazi Germany, and we are progressing to the next phase
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FUCK OFF WITH THIS SHIT you utterly trite broken record.
You never mentioned that you are the dick cheese.
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No kidding. Whiners these days don't have a fucking clue.
Not a wi-fi problem (Score:4, Informative)
First, most of these problems are about general remote communication problems, but the article is jumping to the conclusion that a wireless LAN is the only possible fix. Almost all the problems addressed in the article could be addressed with an email terminal.
Second, the article both says that there is WLAN on these ships, but the staff is "not allowed to use" it - while also claiming that the owners "donâ(TM)t want to put Wi-Fi on their ships". So which is it?
Re:Not a wi-fi problem (Score:5, Interesting)
It's definitely not a WiFi problem. But it's a human rights abuses problem. This is about keeping them from costing the company money and exposing details of the conditions.
Someone else mentioned satellite communication or shortwave but miss the point that privacy is extremely important. A shared use email terminal is equally limited in giving any ability to say something without being overheard or intercepted.
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No it is a human stupidity problem. Why do these people even sign up for these contracts? Because they are stupid. And why do Indonesians produce children they can't provide proper education for? Because they are stupid. This is Trump-level stupidity!
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I think maybe we can consider the speakers here are Indonesian Line Fisherman working 22 hours for $15/day, maybe we can just accept that when they use the term "Wifi" they mean "internet and communication access", not a huge logic leap.
A monitored terminal? Wi-Fi is only solution! (Score:3)
First, most of these problems are about general remote communication problems, but the article is jumping to the conclusion that a wireless LAN is the only possible fix. Almost all the problems addressed in the article could be addressed with an email terminal.
Second, the article both says that there is WLAN on these ships, but the staff is "not allowed to use" it - while also claiming that the owners "donâ(TM)t want to put Wi-Fi on their ships". So which is it?
An e-mail terminal would get monitored by corporate...as soon as the word "union" or "organize" gets typed, expect a sudden loss of internet. Corporate overlords who abuse migrants can't be trusted to not abuse their rights. Open and un-monitored Wi-Fi is the only reasonable solution. If these corporations are afraid of that, it makes you wonder what they're hiding. It's a fishing vessel, not a nuclear launch site. The only motivation for secrecy is to hide illegal labor abuses.
Deep sea fishing is
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So the evil owners (TM) shouldn't be trusted to not monitor a terminal they provide, but you think they would not monitor their network? What benevolent corporate overlords are you you working for that provide unfiltered, unmonitored guest internet access?
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So the evil owners (TM) shouldn't be trusted to not monitor a terminal they provide, but you think they would not monitor their network?
Everything is encrypted nowadays, plus VPNs exist.
Wifi? (Score:3)
Or maybe you mean (stuff like) Starlink?
Re: Wifi? (Score:2)
I have no fear to name him... Voldemort is his name!
Yeah, but cost needs to be footed by employer (Score:2)
Or maybe you mean (stuff like) Starlink?
A migrant fisherman can't afford his own Starlink terminal...if you can even do that. He needs WiFi to work with a basic phone. In the USA, you're 25x more likely to die on the job as a deep sea fisher than all other jobs, which includes cop, miner, truck driver, etc. If a job is that deadly, especially since it is often due to employer negligence, you need the right to communicate to the outside world.
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Nothing stopping going from communicating with the outside world when you get to shore, on your own time, using your own resources.
Death will stop you! (Score:2)
Nothing stopping going from communicating with the outside world when you get to shore, on your own time, using your own resources.
Sorry...that's bullshit. If the ship is unsafe, people can die and LOTS do. They need the right to communicate with the outside world to report deadly conditions. They could get killed by a storm as well, which could be no one's fault and may be unavoidable...I don't think most phones would be recovered and if they did, I doubt they work...I think given the high fatality rate and length of time at sea, we can make exceptions for them that we wouldn't make for an accountant or someone working at WalMart.
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It seems like you disagree. That's fine.
Re: Yeah, but cost needs to be footed by employer (Score:2)
No matter what, it cannot be wifi on a fishermen boat.
You gotta fight. For your right. (Score:5, Funny)
Summary is incorrect (Score:5, Informative)
"A coalition of labor rights groups, 404 Media, is pushing to mandate Wi-Fi on ships"
That should read:
A coalition between a self-organized Indonesian fishers' union, a Taiwanese human rights group and multiple global labor organizations is pushing to mandate Wi-Fi on ships
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They can get wifi access point setup, if they win the case. Wi-Fi without internet access won't change current situation.
How would wifi help? (Score:2)
Their on-boat intranet topology is probably a less important problem.
And the difference is something that a technical writer and editor - who are proud of the work they do - should be aware of.
WiFi is a "human right" (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: WiFi is a "human right" (Score:3, Insightful)
Communications are a human right and anything less than Internet access is abusive in the modern era.
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Who gets to decide that life is a human right ?
Re: WiFi is a "human right" (Score:2)
Well, in this case it was the UN Human Rights Council.
Lazy fishermen (Score:3)
What do they need to be doomscrolling on TikTok for? Go fish.
They need guns, not WiFi (Score:1)
Guns are use to enslave them after they left port, guns will keep them free. The rest will follow.
22 hour days?? wtf? (Score:3, Insightful)
No one can work 22 hours a day for more than a few days without total mental and/or physical collapse , never mind 10 months. So someone had got their facts wrong. Unless they meant some kind of on-call for 22 hours a day which is an entirely different thing.
Re:22 hour days?? wtf? (Score:4, Funny)
So they work 7 hrs a day less than Yorkshiremen
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Call me Ishmael... (Score:2)
When I were a boy we didn't have WiFi anywhere. The boats have WiFi and internet access. They just don't give the crew access.
I think the captains want to avoid being recorded in real-time by the crew, because that could lead to mutiny, and they also want to avoid having crew members run their own fishing channels, because it's their boat, not the crew's and making side $$ showing the insane conditions they have to endure would probably make more money than catching tuna. It's all economics and cont
Re: I'd kill you. Simple as that. You'd die. (Score:2)
"Who the fuck would put up with that?"
Indonesian fishermen, evidently.
Don't underestimate the cultural differences in resorting to violence and overthrowing authority.
Outcome: Less money for the workers (Score:2)
If they put Starlink or sat-phone access on boats, that costs money. That means less money to be made overall. That will come from somewhere. Likely it will be from the worker's salaries. So in the end, if they want their access they will have to pay for it.
404 media is a coalition of labor rights groups? (Score:1)