After a contentious spring fighting for free enterprise and a fair share of snow crab pricing, the latest strife in Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishing industry is on the labour front.
Four plants whose unionized workers are represented by FFAW-Unifor have reached an impasse in negotiating new collective agreements with their respective employers.
In a social media post on Wednesday, May 8, the union announced that contract talks with Beothic Fish Processors in New-Wes-Valley had broken down.
Conciliation failed
The sides had met with a provincial government-appointed conciliator in late April and the conciliator filed a report with Environment and Climate Change Minister Bernard Davis – whose portfolio is also responsible for the labour division – on May 3.
The union must wait until May 19 before it can take a strike vote and the company must wait until that time has elapsed before it can choose to lock plant workers out.
“Please note that these steps only need to be taken if a deal is not secured in the meantime,” the union emphasized in its post.
Same scenario elsewhere
A similar situation is unfolding at three more plants: Ocean Choice International (OCI) facilities in Bonavista and Triton and the Barry Group-owned plant located in Witless Bay.
The contracts for all three of those plants expired Dec. 31, 2023 and negotiations have wound up in the hands of conciliation.
The OCI plants went to conciliation May 7, while the Barry Group plant went May 1.
Main issue money
Joey Warford is the Industrial-Retail-Offshore Council member representative for FFAW-Unifor and part of the negotiating team for the plants in Bonavista, Triton and Witless Bay.
The locations may be different, but the underlying issue in trying to reach new deals is money, he said.
“Everybody knows the economy and state of everything today,” Warford told SaltWire in an interview.
“Groceries are gone through the roof, gas is gone through the roof. Wages are top priority for everyone and our membership has spoken loud and clear to us to say more money is obviously what’s needed.”
Narrowing the gap
When the last collective agreements were signed in 2021, the minimum wage in Newfoundland and Labrador was $12.50. The gap between minimum wage and the wages earned by plant workers at the start of their last new agreement was between $4.50 and $4.70, said Warford.
Now that the minimum wage has risen to $15.60 per hour, he said, the gap has closed to between $2.80 and $3.30 per hour.
“That spread is getting narrower and narrower and we’re trying to keep it up,” said Warford.
Overwhelming rejection
Prior to going to conciliation, the union took two tentative agreements back to its membership.
Warford declined to talk numbers, both in terms of what was on the table and the percentages of the voting by members, but said both tentative agreements were overwhelmingly rejected.
“There were increases, but not enough increases … The cost of living is through the roof and people can’t survive on the wages that’s in front of them,” he said.
Harder as season goes on
Warford had hoped, after starting the negotiation process last fall, that new collective agreements could have been in place before the fishing season started earlier in the spring.
“It can be frustrating,” he said of the uncertainty lingering into the fishing season.
“We do put a lot of time and effort into this. When we get out to meetings and try to explain to members where we’re to, we’re hearing it from our members. The season is going on and, the further the season goes, it’s harder.”
Hope to avert disruptions
Thanking the volunteer plant workers who serve on the negotiating committees and who shoulder the stress of their colleagues when they return to the plants to work alongside them, Warford hopes strikes and lockouts can be averted.
“We would like to get a deal reached at the table,” he said.
The final decision is not the negotiating committee’s to make, though.
“We have to bring that back to our members and they are the ones who ultimately decide if it works for them or if it doesn’t,” said Warford.
“Right now, it is not working for them.”
According to Warford, there are about 400 workers at each of the Bonavista and Valleyfield plants, close to 120 at Triton and another 100 or so at Witless Bay.
SaltWire reached out to OCI and Beothic for interviews.
Beothic had not responded as of deadline, while OCI provided an emailed response that stated the company hoped to continue to work with the union to reach an agreement.
