By Paul Jeffrey
OSV News

When Charles Niece graduated from Seton Hall University, he considered pursuing further studies. But first he wanted a change of scenery.

“My knowledge of Christian mission was confined to a classroom, formed by reading scholarly journals and writing research papers. I needed a year off with exposure to the real world,” Niece said.

He applied to the Maryknoll short-term volunteer program, was accepted and in 2019 flew to Taiwan, where he was assigned to work with Maryknoll Father Joyalito Tajonera in Taichung, Taiwan’s third-largest city. There Father Tajonera — known as “Father Joy” — runs a shelter for migrant workers housed in the Tanzi Catholic Church, a lively congregation centered in the Filipino migrant community.

Niece helped out in the parish and studied Mandarin Chinese at Providence University. He also practiced what he called a ministry of presence, listening to Filipinos in the congregation and shelter. He soon started learning Tagalog.

Before his one-year commitment was up, international travel ground to a halt as governments closed their borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Niece enrolled in a master’s program in business administration at Providence.

As migrant workers faced the pandemic, Niece listened to their growing concerns. He wanted to do more than just refer them to the government’s Ministry of Labor.

He began helping the migrants carefully prepare the documentation they needed to prove allegations of abuse or unfair treatment. Often that meant preparing written complaints in English, as functionaries in the labor office rarely spoke Tagalog.

“I’d save all relevant text messages that proved the employer or agent was threatening or deceiving the worker. I’d review pay stubs and timecards to compute years of unpaid wages. And I’d review bank statements revealing exactly when unauthorized deductions occurred,” he told Maryknoll Magazine.

During a business ethics class, Niece studied the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 that took the lives of 1,134 workers and injured more than 2,500 others. He learned about the Foxconn suicides in China, mostly in 2010 and 2011, which were proven to have been linked to exploitative conditions. These events illustrated how giant international brands failed to address human rights risks in their supply chains.

Niece also learned about supplier codes of conduct, the corporate policies that were supposed to guarantee basic rights in factories around the world. He had heard enough from the Filipino workers to know that the codes — achieved thanks to decades of shareholder activism — were not regularly put into practice in Taiwan.

“It left me wondering if U.S. companies sourcing from Taiwan really knew what was going on here,” he said.

In the last five years, Niece — who was recently named director of the Maryknoll Corporate Social Responsibility Office — has helped workers file complaints of noncompliance with codes of conduct in over 40 factories in Taiwan, including companies that process food and make electronics, medical devices, apparel, bicycles, automotive parts and tools.

That effort resulted in the reimbursement of more than $6 million in recruitment fees, over 600 bank accounts returned to workers, and more than 2,000 passports and other identity documents returned to their owners.

Niece believes that long-term solutions to workplace abuse and worker mistreatment will only come as workers are empowered to speak up for themselves.

“Our role is behind the scenes, educating workers and helping them get connected. … Workers need to know what’s happening throughout the process and be confident of their ability to effect change,” he said.

Paul Jeffrey, a U.S.-based photojournalist who works around the world with church-sponsored relief agencies, writes for Maryknoll Magazine and other publications. This story was originally published by Maryknoll Magazine, the flagship publication of Maryknoll, and is distributed through a partnership with OSV News.

Above: Charles Niece, center, is seen in an undated photo talking with immigrant factory workers in Taiwan, advising them of their rights. Niece oversaw a Maryknoll project in Taiwan focused on human rights and supply chain transparency, and is now director of the Maryknoll Corporate Social Responsibility Office. (Paul Jeffrey / OSV News)