Shrimp shutdown puts plant workers in peril

By Barbara Dean-Simmons

Transcontinental Media

Jim and Gertie Dalton, like their 200 co-workers at the shrimp plant in Port Union, N.L. are wondering how they will survive through what could be weeks of no income.

The shrimp-processing season was just getting into swing — they had finished a couple of weeks on the lines — when the shrimp processing business stalled on May 31.

The Association of Seafood Processors went to the Fish Price Setting Panel asking for prices to be lowered by 10 cents, bringing the price for harvesters down to about 32 cents a pound. They claimed the recession and the strengthening Canadian dollars was making it harder to do business.

Since the panel set the shrimp prices in March, the Canadian dollar had risen from 81 cents to 92 cents American. Fish harvesters countered with the claim they could not fish for 32 cents. Last year they managed at 42 cents a pound, but the previous year they fished for 50 cents.

The two sides were at a stalemate, and the processors simply stopped buying. It left plant workers caught in the middle.

The Daltons are nearing the end of the unemployment insurance claim from last year and, if the shrimp business doesn’t start up again soon, they’ll have no income at all and not enough weeks of work to file new claims.

Jim is the Fish Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) local union representative at the OCI plant in Port Union. Last year, they started work at the plant in April and worked every week until September, processing the shellfish. Harvesters were getting 50 cents a pound for the catch.

The Dalton’s feel like pawns in a game of one-upmanship and conspiracy.

He suggests the lower price should not be a problem for harvesters, given that “they landed shrimp for 29 cents a pound two summers ago, when fuel was $1.50 a litre.”

That doesn’t mean he holds favour with the processors, noting some processors have been shipping shrimp in from Nova Scotia for processing. “If they can make a profit on that, I can’t see why they can’t make a profit on the shrimp that’s landed here,” he says.

His wife is also suspicious about the contention by plant owners that the market for shrimp is weak. She says they’re still “ bagging shrimp” for export from the Port Union plant. “And that’s supposed to continue for five more weeks,” she notes, leaving her to believe the markets still want the product at the current price.

There are just over 200 people who depend on wages from the OCI plant in Port Union. The Daltons say they don’t know how these people will manage without work.

If government doesn’t extend EI, they say a lot of people will wind up on social services. But that’s not much good to many of them, when there are auto or mortgage payments to cover. Social assistance won’t cover those bills.

Dalton, himself, is ready to call it quits in the fish processing business.

He’s fortunate in that he’s got enough credentials — industrial mechanic, welder — to perhaps find work in another industry. He’s already been making calls to Alberta and he plans to be at a job fair in Gander next week hosted by western-Canadian recruiters.

It’s not just this season that’s been getting to him; it’s the increasing frustration that after 37 years of work in this business, things are not getting any better.

When he started work at Fishery Products International (FPI) in Port Union over three decades ago, he says, he worked year round. “I got four weeks off each year and most years I only took two. I worked every week, sometimes seven days a week. Some weeks I brought home $1,000. That was good money.”

Now, he says, his work life is reduced to simply wondering if he will get enough weeks to qualify for EI. “When I go into a job and have to ask ‘am I going to qualify for EI’ perhaps it’s time to move on.”

The shutdown also affects about 150 workers at the Barry Group’s plant in Clarenville. The workers there are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. No one from the union was available for comment.

In addition to plant workers, crewmembers are also feeling the pinch.

The Daltons note there are several boats in the Catalina to Bonavista area that fish only shrimp. No fishing means no income, leaving fishers in the same boat as the people who process their catch.

Talks between the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Processors have been ongoing since last June 4, Provincial fisheries minister Tom Hedderson intended to meet with industry representatives on June 10. However, he indicated Monday, June 8 to provincial media that he was not optimistic for a quick resolution.