June 8, 1962
THE FISHERMAN
Page 3
Tripartite Treaty Up Soon
High Seas Fishery Conflict Grows
Although Ottawa and Washington have given scant indication of it, a major conflict over high seas fishing policy involving Canada, United States, Japan and the Soviet Union, is shaping up in the North Pacific.
The issue is the international convention for high seas fisheries of the North Pacific, to which Canada, US and Japan are signatories.
The treaty, administered by the Internationa] North Pacific Fisheries Commission, went into effect in 1953 for a 10 year period, following which it could be terminated by any of the three countries on one year's notice.
It committed Japan to abstain from fishing salmon on the high seas east of 175 degrees West long-titude and established conditions under which Japan would abstain from fishing halibut and herring
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
WAGE FIGHT
many other Union proposals, the organisation and the membership as a whole brought maximum pressure to bear.
"This is the only language our ruthless, hard boiled and money hungry employers understand. When are some people ever going to learn this lesson?" LAUDS OUTSIDE WORKERS
In an editorial page article, The Barker outlines gains made by Vancouver Civic Employees Union Outside Workers, whose recently concluded agreement gives an increase of 3 "2 cents an hour in the first two laborers' categories and four cents in all. other categories. In addition, the Union obtained sick pay benefits worth approximately two cents an hour.
"Congratulations are due the Outside Workers' union for their efforts on behalf of their membership," says the paper. "The results of their bargaining have again improved wages and conditions for their members.
"This has widened the gap even further between them and those wages and conditions presently in effect in the lumber industry.
"The civic worker's basic rate is now $2.04 per hour — compared to a basic rate in the lumber industry of $1.92, a difference of 12 cents per hour or about $19.20 per month."
PULP, SULPHITE GAINS
The new Pulp and Sulphite agreement provides for a 3.5 percent increase, which adds seven cents to the base rate to bring it to $2.10 cents an hour. The increase ranges up to 11 cents an hour.
More than 1,000 mechanics get a five cent an hour wage adjustment. Around 250 engineers in one group also get a five cent adjustment which, added to the 9-10 cents obtained in the general wage increase, brings their total increase to 14-15 cents an hour. Engineers in another group get a four cent wage adjustment.
CARPENTERS' DEMANDS
Vancouver Carpenters Local 452 has asked for a strike vote to back its negotiating committee's stand after the breakdown of negotiations with contractors in meetings with a conciliation officer last month.
The Local is asking 15 cents an hour wage increase this year and 10 cents next year, as well as travelling time benefits including agreement that members working on out of town jobs shall not be required to pay more than $2 a day room and board.
The Local is also asking for a 7% hour working day, to go into effect in April 1963.
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The conflict, which has been gathering force over the past few years, arises from the approaching end of the 10 year period. Unless it is renegotiated, the present treaty will continue in force at the discretion of the signatory countries, any one of which can terminate it by giving the necessary one year's notice. FISHERMEN AROUSED
The United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, speaking for the overwhelming majority of Can- [ adian salmon fishermen, vigorously opposed the treaty from the outset. The vigor of its protests held up Canada's signature for a full • year. In 1958, the UFAWU general executive   board   officially called for cessation of the Japanese mid-ocean salmon fishery and in the 1 past four years its consistent campaign has gained wide public support.
The Union has also called for j inclusion of the Soviet Union in a four nation treaty.
Alaska salmon fishermen are no I less opposed to the continued sacrifice of their salmon fishery to US cold war aims in Japan. The tide of feeling has been rising among salmon fishermen of Washington state.
The steady decline in Canadian and US salmon catches while the Japanese catch increases in direct proportion to that decline is a hard argument to overcome. JAPANESE THREAT
To counter the effect of hardening public opinion in Canada and the US, the Japanese salmon industry is adopting the truculent attitude that Japan can now withdraw from the treaty.
According to the Japanese fishery periodical, Suisar, Keizai Shim-bun, the Japanese salmon industry is divided between those who want to eliminate the 175 degrees West longitude salmon abstention line and those who favor a more moderate approach.
But all sections of the Japanese salmon industry reportedly advocate renegotiation of the treaty.
Neikkeiren, the National Federation of Salmon Fishing Cooperative Associations, which is composed of owners of gillnet vessels assigned to motherships, wants the abstention line eliminated.
This section, with its direct interest in maintaining the mid-ocean fishery, is calling for removal of the abstention line as a "national disgrace" to Japan. EFFECT ON USSR
Neikkeiren is concerned with the effect of Japanese-Canadian-US negotiations on future Japanese-Soviet negotiations. It fears that renewal of the present tripartite treaty will weaken Japan's position when the Japanese-Soviet convention governing Northwest Pacific fisheries expires in four years.
Another section of the Japanese salmon industry, according to Sui-san Keizai Shimbun, believes that Japanese insistence upon elimination of the abstention line will will bring retaliation from the US and Canada in the form of severe import restrictions on Japanese frozen tuna and canned fish.
In its May 15 issue, Suisan Keizai Shimbun reported that the Japan-US-Canada Fisheries Treaty Study Society is now preparing a report on the tripartite treaty. REPORT PREPARED
This organisation, formed in June 1961, includes representatives of the fishing industry, fisheries scientists and experts in international law, some of them drawn from the Japanese Fishery Agency and the foreign office.
It is gathering materials on the background of the treaty, relations with the US at the time the convention was concluded and scientific arguments for establishing the abstention line.
Among its findings is expected to be a study of the validity of the abstention line under international law of the sea.
The periodical notes, however, that some Japanese fishing industry circles want an inclusive committee established to assume the work both of the Japan-US-Canada Fisheries Treaty Study Society and the Japan-Soviet Fisheries Committee, which was set up to study Japanese-Soviet problems. INFLUENCE GOV'T
Aim of the Japanese salmon industry is to influence the government's policy on the tri-partite treaty by presenting its own fully formulated policy early. Next month, it is reported, the industry will set up a committee to resolve differences within the industry and prepare its policy.
As reported by Suisan Keizai Shimbun, the Japanese government is expected to have its policy outlined before the interim meeting of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission at Honolulu in August.
Should the three countries renegotiate the treaty, adds the periodical, debates will most likely center around problems of the abstention line, species on the abstention list and admission of the Soviet Union to membership in the new treaty.
'Sun' Editorial Peddles Same Old Company Line
Union Answers Market Lies
The Untied Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, over the signature of secretary treasurer Homer Stevens on June 4 replied to an editorial in the Vancouver Sun which echoed standard, unfounded company propaganda on markets and prices.
The editorial, which appeared May 26, is carried below.
So far the Sun hasn't carried Stevens' reply. It has consistently suppressed any truths which run counter to editorial policy.
When Diefenbaker found rough going at his public meeting in the Vancouver Forum last week, the Sun piously labelled it "a denial of the fundamental rights of the democratic process.'' Hon does the Sun describe its outright and consistent censorship of labor's views? Editor, The Sun:
In your editorial of May 26, 1962, headed "The Same Old Line" you fired a broadside in typical Vancouver Sun style. Half truths, outright falsehood, mixed with employer propaganda produced a garbled outline and no solution for the problems of the fishing industry.
You claim "the BC salmon fishery is a classic example of an industry that is impoverishing itself by pricing itself out of the markets." Not a shred of proof to back up your claim. "The value of exports of all varieties of Canadian canned salmon in 1961 amounted to $13,000,000 in comparison with $10,927,000 in 1960," said T. R. Kinsella, chief fisheries division, trade and commerce department.
Surely the Vancouver Sun had access to the statements made by the "Captains of Industry" at their recent annual Fisheries Council of Canada meeting in Quebec. We'll quote a few for your readers.
J. Norman Hyland, sales manger, BC Packers: "I have never attended a council meeting where such confidence . was expressed in markets, both domestic and foreign. We can not only sell our present production but are also optimistic about selling any increased production we may enjoy in future."
We have E. S. Turnhill, fresh and frozen sales manager of BC Packers, statement that we have "come close to reaching the pre-war levels of halibut and salmon tonnage" in United Kingdom sales. He added the British Columbia Frozen Fish Exporters had been "extremely effective in meeting competition from Japan, United States and Norway."
Ken Campbell, secretary of the Fisheries Association, in a paper dealing with the ECM said, "In summary, then, although we are not encountering any major problems in the disposition of our exportable surplus in the traditional markets, the future of canned salmon depends on Britain and the European Common Market."
This is the picture you choose to ignore, Mr. Editor.
The companies are reaping fancy profits at the expense of foreign and domestic consumers. During the years 1958 to 1961 the wholesale price of sockeye salman increased from $30 to $46.38 per case. This is a jump of $16.38. In 1S53 the fishermen received 22 cents per pound for sockeye salmon, so out of the wholesaler's $30 the cost of round fish was $15.40, leaving $14.60 for processing costs and profits. In 1961, the cost of round fish at 32 cents for fishermen was $22.40 per case, leaving the processors $23.98 for processing costs and profits.
Unit labor costs are not rising in fish processing because of greater mechanisation and centralisation and a rapid reduction in the total labor force employed. Thus the main benefits of price rises have gone into the rising profits of the fishing companies.
Our Union has asked the government of Canada to release all evidence of price fixing and consumer gouging practised by the oligopoly in the fishing industry. We challenge the Sun to join us in the demand for a real expose of profiteering!
You would be doing a greater service than expressing pious hopes for a future in which "management enjoyed increased profits." Why not consumers enjoying lower prices?
Your treatment for the twin problems of declining salmon runs and larger numbers of salmon fishermen completely ignores company financing policies. Obviously you never really studied Professor Sol Sinclair's Report which you erroneously label the "Solomon Report."
Had you read the introduction, you could not help but note the consistent demands of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union, over the past 18 years, for a licence limitation policy.
Our Union has demanded immediate action on Sinclair's vital proposal of a five year moratorium on new licences. We demanded action to break the vertical integration and company financing of more boats and gear in an overcrowded industry. We demanded the formation of a Board of Review to deal with special problems arising from the general barriers against the increasing influx of new fishermen.
You say: "Management, labor and government know well enough that before long it is essential that the industry be reformed. But so far, no one has had the courage to propose, let alone attempt it." (Our emphasis).
Mr. Editor, you fabricate your falsehoods out of whole cloth. Six thousand organised working fishermen and al-
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lied workers have recognised the problem, proposed the solution, and badgered both Tory and Liberal governments for action.
The former Liberal'government refused action from 1943 to 1957, when it was booted out of office. Since then the Tories have failed to act and the minister of fisheries hasn't even had the courage or decency to attend our annual conference to attempt an explanation for his stalling on this vital issue.
As for the Fisheries Association—let their own words speak for them. "Fishermen . . . have raised their voices against free entry of other fishermen on grounds that those now active continue to suffer submarginal returns for their efforts. They contend that their average returns can be significantly increased by reducing the number of participating fishermen. ... I can suggest no answer . . . the mechanics of implementing a controlled entry fishery are exceedingly difficult to design and operate in a democracy," says R. L. Payne, general manager of J. H. Todd and Sons Ltd. a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of the two giants (BC Packers and Canadian Fish) and now president of the Fisheries Council of Canada.
In other words, the canners are saying, "Fishermen may be in trouble but we have no answer. Anyway it is difficult and under free enterprise the main thing is to look after our own profits."
In conclusion, Mr. Editor, knowing your unjustified pride in claiming to print the whole truth and your penchant for suppressing organised labor's viewpoint, it seems doubtful whether our answer will ever see the light of day in the "Sun."
Therefore, your editorial and our reply will be released to The Fisherman, a paper unafraid of printing the fishermen's side of the story.
UNITED FISHERMEN & ALLIED WORKERS' UNION,
per HOMER STEVENS, secretary treasurer.
The following editorial was carried in the Vancouver Sun of Saturday, Aiay 26. under the unconsciously apt heading: THE SAME OLD LINE.
Same Old (Company) Line
PRICE negotiations are under way this year as usual in the British Columbia salmon fishery. The key word is usual.
Before the sessions have opened, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union has demanded up to 3.6 cents a pound more for salmon caught this year. There is no indication that the Fisheries Association of BC will begin bargaining Friday with other than its usual opposition to the Union's demands.
There is yet no indication whatever the industry as a whole has any intention of seeking a cure for the basic ills that afflict it—and could prove fatal.
The BC salmon fishery is a classic example of an industry that is impoverishing itself by pricing itself out of the market. Already good red salmon, with which BC waters teem, are a luxury too expensive for a very large proportion of BC consumers. This product is very nearly pricing itself out of competition with Russian and Japanese salmon in world markets.
The fundamental fallacy is implicit in the Union's statement that the average gross earnings of a BC salmon fisherman in 1961 were $1,825.
This is true enough. But it does not paint the whole picture. Let us take the boom year of 1958, to put the situation in its best possible light. That year, with average earnings of $2,421, one third of BC fisher-
men averaged $135, or 1.3 percent of the total gros earnings of all fishermen. The top 25 sercent averaged $8,188, or 65.7 ""rcent of the total gross earnings.
In the salmon fishery alone the discrepancy was even greater.
The plain fact is that one quarter of the BC fishing industry is a highly efficient operation. The full lower half is nothing but an economic slum. The industry is pricing itself out of the market by trying to
I sell its products at prices that
I will keep the entire crazy setup
j operating.
If the BC salmon fishery were
I reorganised on a sound economic basis it could compete anywhere in the world while management enjoyed increased profits and fishermen greater individual earnings.
Granted, such a reorganisation would involve major economic, legal and social changes. This was blueprinted in the Solomon Report on the BC fishing industry, released more than a year ago. Management, labor md government know well enough that before long it is essential that the industry be reformed.
But so far, no one has had the courage to propose, let alone attempt, it. For another year now, the industry apparently is content to follow its current practice of self strangulation.
Kelvin Hughes
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