I think that one of the only methods that has a chance is to go to the UN and work out a treaty on human rights for maritime workers with the stipulation that once a supermajority of nations ratify/adopt it, ships flying the flag of a nation that hasn't ratified it are not allowed in the ports of the nations that have.
Fair trade is better than no trade (other things being equal) if you want to support foreign workers.
Just global trade systems are a hard problem, as I see it, and really can't be organised from the consumer end (ie by simply choosing where/if to buy goods).
And all those poor sailors suddenly retire and live happily ever after, NOT. Buying local is not a solution to sailors and not a solution to buyers either as so many things are simply not being made locally.
What is needed is a control. If company does things like this then countries can start issuing huge fines should any ship of said company visit the their ports. That'll teach them proper.
Note that few of them will do the design/engineering work for you. But if you have a "blueprint" they will build it. Be prepared to pay - they are all making good wages for your city not third world step above slave wages.
The raw material was extracted and the equipment itself was produced by yet another layer of equipment. And so on, until you get to the iron ore and copper and so on. No way will all of that be local.
Solution: make more of these companies fail?
Think hard before buying something "new". You may not need it, or you may be able to find alternatives, such as hand-me-downs, secondhand, etc.
However, it does help you not be comlicit to their treatment.
Companies that use these services could exert pressure for better conditions, just like some have done with other companies in their supply chain.
I have somewhat limited agency in this world, limited to the little bit of money I spend, the movement of my arms and legs, the words I speak, the things I look at, and my thoughts and intentions.
Willingly trying to avoid global shipping would actually make you more complicit.
They don't have direct relationship to that sector anymore, after all.
And even if you managed to reduce all private consumption to zero, commercial consumption probably makes up an order of magnitudes more than private does. It doesn't matter what YOU do, you can't change the scales that these ships operate.
The only thing that will fix this is government intervention and fines that make it less cost effective to abandon the ship than to deal with the consequences.
This isn't really an excuse in e.g. USA, which produces surpluses in both of these commodities.
I disagree with your statement that "it doesn't matter what you do". It is all that matters, because what everyone else does is beyond my control, and only what I do is under my control.
Individual action and its spread through word-of-mouth is pretty much the only way anything changes in this world.
It's a set of misaligned incentives that create a hole where ships like these fit. No amount of your individual do-gooding will fix that incentive misalignment.
The second advantage is that you don't have to pay, so it is more likely that items will find a good home instead of being discarded.
The third advantage is non-participation in the money system, if you're into that sort of thing, and also the elimination of overhead for store and inventory upkeep.
One downside, of course, is that most people aren't willing to keep their "stock" around for too long, so there's limited inventory at any given time that you can browse.
> The most direct way to participate in this amazing experiment with us is to join the BuyNothing App.
Oh, also, there're a lot of plants and things that get exchanged, another difference from second hand shops.
If the economy is in a state of overproduction and extreme waste while the effects are the burn-up of our own habitat, shouldn't it tune down a bit anyway?
I hope there is a middle way.
Unscrupulous actors get away with this because there are few rules against it, and enforcement is non-existent. If a shipping company is sanctioned from entry into American ports based on misbehavior on the other side of the world, they'd have an incentive to clean up their act... Or at least, to subcontract everything to shell corporations.
1. Complain on the internet. This is easy but utterly ineffectual.
2. Alter your buying behavior. Unless you are the purchasing director for a multinational conglomerate, also utterly ineffectual.
3. Do something stupid like trying to blow up a containership. Also ineffectual, will land you in jail and will almost certainly kill some innocent people.
4. Contact your local representatives and get them to do soemthing about it. This will be easier if you are part of a larger group. Then your group and your representative(s) can contact someone higher up and so on.
Yes this particular problem and many others relating to ship operations thrives because there is little direct control and everyone is from 20 different jurisdictions, but perhaps some of those jurisdictions can team up and tax those that don't follow their rules or whatever. I am not an expert in this but some people are and the most I can do is let my representatives know that I care about this stuff. Maybe I actually should go and do that.
(although I have noticed something unfortunate: I have a LOT of 5-star documentaries to watch, but rarely do, while I watch even 2-star scifi stuff almost immediately)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-31/for-st...