Concerns over the amount of crab left in the 3K area on the northeast coast of Newfoundland were not confined to fish harvesters – plant workers have felt the affects too.
Paul Kean, the union rep for over 300 workers with Beothic Fish Processors Ltd. at the Valleyfield plant, said due to a late start in the snow crab fishery, many workers are three-to-four weeks short of the numbers necessary to make an Employment Insurance claim.
That late start was due to a price dispute between the Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) and the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) union. The disagreement went on for almost all of April before ASP agreed to begin purchasing product at the initial price of $1.35 per pound.
By June, returns began to decrease for fish harvesters, as soft-shell crab began to appear. By the end of the season in mid-July, 14 per cent of the crab quota for the 3K area was left uncaught.
Mr. Kean said work relating to groundfish was minimal this year, with the turbot fishery performance particularly underwhelming.
“Last year, we got approximately three-weeks work out of it. This year, we got just a few hours, a few days.”
The plant was in its ninth day of capelin processing last week, and Mr. Kean said he was unsure of how much longer that work would last.
“After this week now, we’ll be very slow until the last week of August or so.” - Paul Kean
“After this week now, we’ll be very slow until the last week of August or so. There’ll be pretty much three weeks of downtime for our workers.”
The toad and rock crab fisheries will then get underway, along with mackerel.
“The dependence on this mackerel, and toad and rock crab fishery is more crucial than it has ever been for the workers at Beothic, due to the late start of the season and all the crab landings caught in 3K,” said Mr. Kean.
Mr. Kean recently sat in on a July 21 meeting with Bonavista North MHA Harry Harding and provincial fisheries minister Clyde Jackman. At the meeting, he said the message was passed on that the late start to the season was having a devastating affect on plant workers.
Secondary processing work on species would help the situation for workers greatly, he said.
“If our government could help assist our company to get involved in this, our company could try to explore other markets and other options for those species.”
Mr. Kean said the minister and MHA told those assembled at the meeting they would take those concerns back to government departments and offer a reply at a later date.
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