First sockeye adjustment pays 11 cents
UFAWU seine crew members will be getting an 11-cent-a-pound initial adjustment in their sockeye payments this year, the first payment under the sockeye minimum price formula negotiated last summer.
Figures released by the Fish Processors Bargaining Association at the end of • SNELL November show the export price of a 48-can case of sockeye halves is currently $115. According to the sockeye adjustment formula, that price yields a minimum price of $1.42.
That is slightly higher than the $1.40 minimum negotiated in 1992 when grounds prices were comparable.
Under the terms of the contract, half of that payment —
11 cents — is being paid immediately, with the balance scheduled to be paid Mar. 31, 1995. Based on the current export price, that second adjustment would also be 11 cents but it could be adjusted up or down depending on the average price of canned sockeye over the next four months.
FPBA executive director Rob Morley said that only one-third of the sockeye pack has been sold so far. Usually some 80-90 per cent of the pack is sold by the end of March.
Because an auditor has not yet been named, the figures from the FPBA have not been independently verified. But Grant Snell, chair of the UFAWU subcommittee on prices, said his committee is expecting to meet with the FPBA within he next few weeks and would be working on appointing an auditor.
"That will certainly be tied down by the time of the next payment," he said.
Some areas change on UI requirement
Adjustment of unemployment rates by the federal Department of Human Resources Development will bring some changes to the entrance requirements for UI although most areas in B.C. will remain the same.
In the Victoria-Saanich area, the entrance requirement has been hiked to 18 weeks while the requirement for the rest of Vancouver Island (including the Sunshine Coast) has been dropped to 13 weeks. The change affects only new claims.
Since the unemployment rate also affects the duration of benefits, there will be some changes there as well.
Those in the high unemployment area of northern Vancouver Island, for example, require 13 weeks to qualify and can draw benefits for up to 32 weeks. But those in the Victoria-Saanich area require 18 weeks to qualify and can only draw for 16 weeks.
A recent decision by Revenue Canada on UI earnings should benefit seine crews, however.
The federal department stated last week that fishermen receiving payments under the sockeye adjustment will be able 'to average the payment over their earnings for the season, thus
WEEKS REQUIRED
FOR A UI CLAIM
Area No. of
weeks
Lower Mainland 17
Victoria-Saanich 18
Vancouver Island
(incl. Sunshine Coast) 13
North Coast 13
Southern B.C. 16
Upper Fraser Valley     16
increasing their weekly insurable earnings and the benefit rate.
Sandra Emeny-Smith, an officer with the insurable earnings division of Revenue Canada, confirmed that any additional payments received by fishermen will be averaged over the number of weeks of fishing and applied equally to insurable earnings. However, it will only be applied to those weeks "which gave rise to the payment," which in the case of the sockeye adjustment, will be weeks of sockeye fishing. Fishermen will not be able to apply sockeye adjustment payments to weeks spent chum fishing, for example.
UFAWU seine boat organizer Bruce Logan said fishermen should make sure that their sockeye adjustment is credited properly to their insurable weeks.
• UFAWU members were among the more than 1,000 delegates to the B.C. Federation of Labour convention which called on government to halt the Kemano project, without compensation. Front row, 1 to r, Bob Walton, Bjorn Storness-Bliss, Jim Boise, Dune Shields, Mark Matthews. Middle row, I to r, Danielle Sciarretta, Bev Wilson, Mary Belanger, Nick Carr, Arnie Nagy, Paul Kandt. Back row, Joy Thorkelson, Jim Sinclair. B.C. Fed stories, pages 8, 9.
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THE FISHERMAN / DECEMBER 13,1994 • 3