ThefiJherm&n
Representing the Organized Fishermen of British Columbia
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Vol. VI. No. 2.
(241)     VANCOUVER, B.C., TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1944
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Cannery Operators In Ottawa
Snug Suits For Naval Seamen
The newest waterproof protective clothing now being made in quantity for the Royal Canadian Navy will keep a seaman warm and dry in any sort of weather. It consists of two zippered overall suits, the inner warmly lined with wool and the other of waterproof synthetic material. Picture at left shows the wearer covered from neck down in sprayproof gaberdine; at centre is shown the outer coverall of butyl rubber, which is also gas proof; at right is shown the hood of synthetic rubber. Only the nose and eyes are left exposed.
Private Buyers Copy Co-op System, Pay For Livers On Potency Basis
According to waterfront discussion, private producers of Vitamin A oils are now copying the example of the fishermen's cooperatives in Vancouver and Prince Rupert in dealing with fishermen for their production of fish livers.
Union Expects Negotiations To Open Once 1944 Pack Prices Are Settled
Representatives of the Salmon Canners Operating Committee including John M. Buchanan, general manager, and R. E. Walker, production manager of B.C. Packers, Sidney M. Rosenberg of Nootka-Banfield Company, P. E. Paulson, production manager of Canadian Fishing Company, F. Millerd, president of the Francis Millerd Company, L. H. Bing of Todd and Sons, and R. Bell-Irving of A.B.C. Packers Ltd., have arrived in Ottawa for discussions with the department of fisheries and the Wartime Prices and Trade Board. Presumably these discussions will concern prices for the 1944 canned salmon pack as well as matters pertaining to canned pilchard and herring prices. The canning operators' committee was preceded in Ottawa by J. S. Eckman, director for fish products on the Pacific Coast for the WPTB.
♦ The United Fishermen's Union is in receipt of a communication from Dr. D. B. Finn, deputy minister of fisheries in Ottawa replying to a letter requesting information concerning government policy with regards to the 1944 canned salmon pack. As reported in previous issues of The Fisherman, the joint executive boards of the United Fishermen's Union and the Native Brotherhood of B.C. have formally advised both the government and the Salmon Canners Operating Committee of their intention to negotiate for the sale of the 1944 salmon production on a poundage basis for all species. The Operating Committee has taken no steps to date to open negotiations with the union
Van. Local Condemns re Order
It is reported that the Western Chemical Company is paying advance prices to fishermen equal to the general market prices and is making later final payments according to potency value of the livers received.
----•  One Vancouver vessel was reported to have received $1.25 per pound for ling cod livers which is now the current market price and a few days ago received an additional $1.25 per pound from 117              f\     1 the company. The same company YV afire   V^rCier       is promising fishermen who continue to do business with them Strong condemnation of the fed- that providing the value of the
livers is in excess of the market prices when purchased, the company will make later additional payments. The action of this company will probably result in a sharp increase in general market prices on high potency livers.
It must now be apparent to all fishermen that the cooperative production of Vitamin A oil is the sole factor responsible for maintaining the level of independent buyers' prices. When the purchase of the plant of Pacific Vitamins is completed by the United Fishermen's Cooperative Society, fishermen who realize the importance, in addition to immediate returns, of building an organization capable of maintaining and protecting the welfare of the fishermen in the future, are expected to increase deliveries to the cooperative.
eral government's latest order-in-council, P.C. 9384, otherwise known as the Wartime Wages Control Order, 1943, was voted at a meeting of the Vancouver Local of the United Fishermen's Union held last Friday in the Fishermen's Hall. The local endorsed the criticism of the order expressed by the Trades & Labor Congress of Canada which has dubbed it a "strait jacket for labor."
The meeting voted to accept forty-seven new applications for membership in the union which had accumulated over the period when with the members out on the grounds no regular meetings could be held.
It was decided that the last regular meeting in February would be set aside for the election of delegates to the annual convention of the union.
A regular donation of $5 monthly was voted to the Trades Congress cigarette fund which is devoted to sending regular shipments of cigarettes to the armed forces.
Vancouver local meets on the first and third Fridays of each month at 7:30 p.m.
Fish Prices
Following wholesale fish prices obtained at Campbell Avenue Dock at Vancouver on January 10:
Vancouver
White Spring Salmon ..........11c lb.
Red Spring Salmon 18c lb.
Flounders _.....2Vic lb.
Soles.......__________............---------6c lb.
Ling Cod  Livers _............1.00 lb.
Dogfish Livers ....................36c !b.
Grey Cod Livers ...... .......------3c lb.
Fresh Grey Cod 5c lb.
Live Cod 14c lb.
Seattle
Seattle fish prices for January 3 were as follows:
Ling Cod 10c lb.
Perch 12c lb.
Salmon, Chum, coast gillnet Be lb.
Fined For Illegal Fishing, Enjoys Free Plane Ride
LADYSMITH, Wis., Jan. 6 — A flying game warden, Pack Priegel, spotted a man ice fishing, landed his plane on the ice and picked up Tony Glenn for an air ride to court. Glenn paid the court $16.35 for illegal ice fishing. He said he didn't mind—the free airplane trip was worth it.
Higher Fish Production, lU.S. Forecast
- WASHINGTON—A 1944 fish production in U.S. and Alaska of four billion or more pounds, exceeding
1942 and 1943 yields but below the approximate 4,400,000,000-pound normal, is forecast by Interior Secretary Ickes, fisheries co-ord-inator.
The 1944 production of pilchards would be at least as large as in
1943 and Sainton poundage probably greater. NEW VESSELS
Ickes based his hope for increased production of fish and -hellfish on the expected availability- of'new vessels. - > -Failure of the industry to meet production goals in 1942 and 1943 was explained by government requisitioning of more than 700 craft. Some have been returned to owners.
The report said the pack of canned fish was expected to increase 10 percent next year over 1943.
CO-OP SETS HIGHER ADVANCES, SOUPFIN LIVERS IN TWO POOLS
An increase of advance prices to be paid fishermen for early 1944 deliveries of liver production was decided on at a meeting of the liver committee of the United Fishermen's Co-operative Society, held last Thursday afternoon. •
It was agreed that the advance the advance price of 20c per pound prices to members for ling cod liv- being paid for dogfish livers upon
delivery.
Final payments on the dogfish liver pools for 1943 are expected to be ready before the end ot January, while final payments on the fin   shark   liver,   the   committee 11943 production of halibut and oth-
ers would be increased from 75c per pound to $1.25 per pound, and on red cod livers the advanced payment would be increased to 60c per pound. For deliveries of soup-
Cannery Convention March 11
March 11 has now been set as the opening date for the Third Annual Convention ot the Fish Cannery, Reduction Plant and Allied Workers Federal Union, Local 89. The convention will commence at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 11 and will continue for two full days. If the business of the convention is not completed in that period, night sessions will be held on Monday, and if need be, Tuesday.
A convention call will be sent out to all branches during the month of January. Delegate representation at the convention will be on the basis ot three delegates from each plant. All branches are asked to note the date of the convention and to lay plans to have three delegates in attendance at the convention.
agreed to advance payments on a basis of potency tests and from now on each delivery of soupfin shark liver will be tested for potency value. Livers testing 80,000 U.S.P. units or over will be placed in one pool and livers under 80,000 U.S.P. units placed in another. In this manner fishermen will receive payment according to the grade of their livers.
Hitherto the advance price for deliveries of all soupfin livers has been $1.00 per pound. Now this amount will be the advance for livers entering the lower pool (under 80,000 U.S.P. units). The advance price for livers for the higher pool will be above this figure. The exact amount will be fixed as soon as testing of deliveries makes it possible to determine the average potency of the livers for this pool.
To take the fullest advantage of this arrangement fishermen are asked to separate soupfin male and female livers and not to deliver them mixed together. The committee decided to make no change for the time being in
UFFU members:
HAVE YOU PAID YOUR MORTUARY FUND ASSESSMENT?
er high potency liver will be held up slightly longer due to the fact that further shipments of this material will be made to the British Food Mission before the 1943 production is entirely cleaned up.
on this matter.
Dr. Finn now advises the Fishermen's Union that "no agreement has, as yet, been arrived at with the industry with respect to the price levels of 1944 for the finished product, but it is hoped that such agreement will be reached during the monlh of January" and states that fishermen's organizations will be kept informed concerning "prices which will prevail."
It is to be hoped that operators' representatives in Ottawa will confine their discussions with the government to prices to be paid for the finished pack and that as a result of their deliberations no repetition of the events of 1943 in the shape of a bombshell order-in-council on producers prices will occur.
The statement of the deputy minister of fisheries does provide the nope that negotiations between the union and the operators may be opened well in advance of the actual fishing season on a basis of collective bargaining between the parties concerned.
Fishermen may also expect as a result of the Ottawa discussions, an indication of Wartime Prices and Trade Board policy in respect to ceiling prices on halibut, ling cod, fresh salmon, and other species, since these matters have been under consideration by the Board for several months.
There has been no announcement thus far of any changes in the American Office of Price Administration Order MP-418 which sets ceiling prices on the other side of the International Boundary. Representations were recently made by the Alaska trollers for higher salmon
prices and by American halibut fishermen for the adjustment of ceiling prices between American ports.
Prominent Instructors Lead WE A Labor Classes Program
Night classes in labor history and related subjects open to Vancouver unionists will be presented by the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Workers Educational Association, it is announced by Claude Donald, WE A secretary here. Speakers will include UBC professors and prominent union leaders, and all classes will be held at Fairview High School of Commerce.
A course on the history of the trade union movement will begin January 31, continuing on alternate Mondays.
Nigel Morgan, international board • member, IWA, will lecture on the history of the CIO. Birt Showier, president of Vancouver Trades and Labor Council, will discuss AFL history, Prof. George Drummond of UBC will lecture on labor and the law.
Social Changes in Modern Novels will be the subject of a series to begin January 24 under the direction of Dr. G. G. Sedgewick. Classes will consist of lectures and discussion periods, in which students will review such outstanding modern works as Ilya Ehrenburg's Fall of Paris and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. These classes will be held on alternate Mondays.
A course in public speaking will open January 26 with the second session February 2, continuing on alternate Wednesdays.
Registration fee for courses is one dollar for every trade unionist whose union is affiliated to the WEA, and a dollar and a half for those whose unions are not affiliated.
Full information is available from Claude Donald at Room 315, Province Building. Phone PA. 7945.
LADNER LOCAL RAPS PRACTICE BOMBING RANGE
Ladner local of the United Fishermen's Union has gone on record as opposing the establishment of an RCAF practice bombing and machine-gun range contemplated by the Western Air Command in an area of Robert's Bank south of Canoe Pass and north of English Bluff. The local considers that the establishment of a range in this area will not only harm the fishing industry as a result of possible destruction of salmon, but will make an important area inaccessible for fishing, establishing a danger to the lives of fishermen operating in the general vicinity.
The Ladner local considers that other and more suitable sites for a practice range could be established either in Boundary Bay or near the Gulf Islands.
A copy of the resolution has been sent to the department of fisheries and is being circulated to other union locals for their endorsation.
Future regular meetings of the Ladner local will be held at 1:30 p.m. on the first Friday of each month in the Ladner Municipal Hall.
Unions Sent 31,000 Gifts For Forces
The United Labor Christmas Cheer Fund Campaign resulted in a total collection of approximately $22,000, to which the entire trade union movement within the province contributed as well as private individuals and firms. As a result, 31,400 Christmas parcels bearing the label rymbolizing the organized labor movement were sent to members of the army, navy, and airforce in the Pacific Coast Command, both men and women.
Although the result fell short of the announced quota of $50,000, this is considered due to the campaign being started only a short time before Christmas. The Vancouver Co-ordinating Council expressed gratification at the results obtained and many letters of thanks have been received on behalf of the armed forces from commanding officers from all parts of the Pacific.