BCP worker adjustment program in jeopardy
Talks have come to a standstill in negotiations between the UFAWU and B.C. Packers over an adjustment program for workers who will lose work when the cannery does not operate this year.
B.C. Packers announced Nov. 9 it was closing down the canning lines at its Imperial Plant in Steveston.
The company and the UFAWU had been working on a joint worker adjustment committee in an effort to settle seniority and call-out list questions in the plant.
"We were working towards one list and one seniority plan," said UFAWU shore-worker vice-president Burma Lockett, who also works at Imperial. "But it ended up with the company coming in with one proposal and the union with another and then the company said the union position didn't allow them enough flexibility."
Lockett said B.C. Packers then withdrew from negotiations, vowing to continue running operations as they had before.
Lockett says she is disappointed the company cancelled talks.
"I believe our proposal gives them the flexibility they were asking for," she said. "I don't know what's going to happen now."
Lockett said one of the stumbling blocks in discussions was over the treatment of displaced workers.
"We were asking for compensation for workers who will get less work because the cannery closed and because of new technology," she said. "At the peak of the season people will get work, but much less than usual, we were looking for compensation for that."
• CANADIAN FISHING COMPANY shoreworkers were busy processing roe herring by the middle of April. Eva Lee Wa Wong (above left) works on the popping line April 19, and Virginia Smith (right) was busy in the roe-on-kelp section on April 16. Over 40,000 tons of herring were caught this year.
Herring season over for fleet as shore plants pop into action
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ed 5,775 tons, nearly doubling the pre-season herring seine quota of 3,000 tons.
Near Winter Harbour a small fleet of 20 gillnetters caught 369 tons of herring out of a quota of 300 tons on Mar. 10.
After a considerable gap between South Coast roe herring openings and elsewhere, the Central Coast opened for seines on Mar. 24.
The first opening landed 4,840 tons, short of the seine quota of 6,999 tons. A second
UFAWU, B.C. Fed brief White on claims issues
opening Mar. 25 brought in 3,815 tons, for a total of 8,655 tons.
Gillnets got a five hour and twenty-five minute opening in the Central Area on Mar. 28, catching a hailed 1089 tons out of a 1,601 ton quota. The fishery reopened Mar. 29 to catch the remainder of the quota, with 918 tons caught, bringing the total gillnet catch up to 2,007 tons.
In the Queen Charlottes seines fished in Area 2 West on Mar. 28. Approximately 60 tons were hailed.
Openings in 2 West on from Mar. 28 to Apr. 1 caught a hailed 1015 tons.
Gillnetters fished in Big Bay in Area 4 on Mar. 31 for a
hailed 4,138 tons. Seines opened on Apr. 1 in Area 5.
Gillnet herring down payments are ranging from $1300 'per ton from the four major companies to $1500 per ton from some of the smaller operators. Cash prices were in the neighbourhood of $2000 a ton.
Seine herring payments to crews are mostly $300 per ton from the major companies, with the shding scale adjustment to be calculated later in the year, though Seafoods Products paid crews at $496 per ton.
While hening fishing is completed for the season, the shore plants are gearing up for what could be a long season extracting roe.
Canadian Fishing Company started popping roe Apr. 16. They have over 5,000 tons of herring to work on. Workers in the plant say they have heard popping may continue until July. About 120 women are employed at the plant when popping is in full operation.
Co-op started on Apr. 19 on 1,000 tons, some of it Alaska production.
J.S. McMillan started popping herring on Apr. 13.
B.C. Packers started work on herring on Apr. 15. Seventy-five people are employed on the popping lines, and three shifts of 23 people are working on the roe-popping machines.
Canadian Labour Congress president Bob White will have a "much better understanding" of the issues involved in land claims and the Aboriginal Fishing Strategy following a meeting with the B.C. Federation of Labour and UFAWU officers, B.C. Fed president Ken Georgetti said.
UFAWU president John Radosevic, secretary-treasurer Dennis Brown and Georgetti met with White April 14 to brief him on the labour movement's approach to land claims discussions and the UFAWUs concerns over the commercialization of the aboriginal fishery.
"It's not an issue that the CLC deals with regularly but I think we gave him a good grounding so he's in a position to take it up at the federal
level," said Georgetti, adding that Radosevic and Brown were able to "lay out in a brief meeting some 35 years of history on the union's approach to land claims."
The meeting also touched on the third party interests of workers in claims negotiations, an issue which has been dramatized by the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy.
"We explained to Bob why we're taking part in the (provincial government's) third party advisory committee — that we need to raise issues on behalf of our members and find out where workers' rights lie and how they'll be maintained and enforced, Georgetti said.
He added that the meeting "will help ensure those issues get raised in Ottawa."
Yellowknife Miners Solidarity Cabaret
Friday, May 7 7:30pm sio/$6    WISE Hall 1882 Adanac at Victoria
THE FISHERMAN / APRIL 23,1993 • 3