Opening the way for a trawl price agreement
THE unity and discipline of the UFAWU trawl fishermen who successfully concluded a six-day strike July 6 carries an important lesson for those fishermen who believe that mysterious market forces or co-operatives can be relied upon to improve prices.
That lesson was driven home the morning the trawl tie-up ended, when hundreds of union shoreworkers in Vancouver and Prince Rupert honored trawl fishermen's picket lines in an impressive two-hour show of solidarity. That support will be essential in the trawl section's struggle to win a minimum price agreement, but last week's tie-up demonstrated that only the organizational strength of the fishermen themselves will win the agreement in the end.
The trawl section provides a graphic illustration of what happens to fishermen compelled to work without contract price protection.
For three years, trawl fishermen have borne steadily increasing operating costs without a single penny in increased income on fish prices. At the same time, however, retail prices for groundfish were climbing and the gap between the price paid to fishermen and that paid by consumers was steadily widening.
The first task trawl fishermen faced was organizational. They demonstrated their own unity in the first five-day tie-up held in May. The second job was to win public understanding of their demands and to serve notice on their fellow workers, both in B.C. and other countries, of the support they may require. This was accomplished by last week's strike. The trawl fishermen took the fight to the companies in three ways — through the press, through the consumer petition and finally, on the picket line.
Trawl fishermen know that no one can win a price agreement for them. They have to win it themselves. The rest of the organized workers in the industry are standing ready to help. If that unity can be sustained, a minimum price agreement for groundfish is only a matter of time.
Those in the salmon fleet who have opted out of the fight for prices in favor of co-operatives or similar devices to freeload on the gains of organized fishermen have learned to their sorrow this year that the companies dominating the industry pay no premium for anti-union activity. Those who counted on a strike to make a living this year have been sorely disappointed; they will have to compete for the fish like everyone else.
Salmon and herring fishermen already enjoy minimum price protection. Without a contract, they undoubtedly would not have recovered from the cuts of 1980. Alaska fishermen, whose organization is weaker, suffered much more serious setbacks and are recovering more slowly. The reason is obvious: they lack the trade union organization that B.C. industry workers have built into a powerful weapon for better prices and wages.
TheA-B boundary is non-negotiable
IN an age when any vessel equipped with Loran-C navigational instruments can pinpoint its position to within a few feet, the United States claim that its coast guard vessels strayed into Canadian waters in Dixon Entrance "by accident" is ludicrous. The "regrets" telephoned by a coast guard admiral to the Vancouver office of the fisheries department compound the insult.
We know that Canadian fishermen who accidently stray into U.S. waters have been arrested, had their boats seized and their catch confiscated. Some have been led manacled to jail. Their "regrets" about "accidents" are not deemed sufficient excuse.
Canadian fishermen who fished on the A-B line July 1 have succeeded where our government failed in its duty to defend our boundary. Now external affairs minister Mark MacGuigan must demand an official apology from the U.S. in the strongest possible terms.
Failure to obtain this apology and to revise Canada's boundary position to maximize our demands would be a betrayal of Canadian fishermen and Canada's interests. The A-B line is our boundary. It is not negotiable. 4/THE FISHERMAN — JULY 10, 1981
AT AH COSTS .DESPITE INFLATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT WE MUST KEEP THIS COUNTRY FREE...,*
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FORTUNATELY, IN THIS BATTLE OUR SHAj« OF THE COSTS (jAN BE PASSED ON TO THE
CONSUMER.
Fish qnd Ships
EVEN when the fishing industry is in the depths of depression, there are optimists who lay plans for tomorrow. Such a person is Al Mearns, who launched his new 43-foot, 10-inch troller Ocean High in Steveston June 24. Ocean High will be sail-rigged to save on fuel and Al has spared nothing in interior fittings. Among the proud owner's first acts after the launching was to celar his vessel for its first season through the UFAWU. •
Some left-over notes from the log of the M/V George Miller: troller Rod Ogden of Green Sea came aboard in Ucluelet June 24 to tell us of his
The UFAWU Seniors Club had a very successful excursion to Wigwam Inn June 24. Mickey Beagle tells us about 16 union veterans made the boat trip up Indian Arm for a sunny picnic. Many of the fishermen on the trip had been in Indian Arm before on more serious business when the inlet still supported a commercial fishery!
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All fishermen dream about that big set, but the New Canadian, a Toronto newspaper published for the Japanese-Canadian community, reported last month on what is Japan's record set: 96 gold bars weighing 102.74 pounds worth an estimated $738,000. Akio Hamamoto and his brother Sachitaka made the catch near Shimonoseki, a city on Japan's west coast, in 1978. The fishermen reported the find to police and gained ownership three years later when no claimants were found. In the meantime, the government had come forward with a $230,000 tax bill for Hamamoto if he takes the gold. He has two months to decide. The bars were suspended in an inner tube, perhaps by smugglers.
• Al Mearns' Ocean High was launched June 24 in Steveston. The troller will be sloop-rigged.
spring tagging charter on the west coast. The department requires strict record-keeping on the size of all fish catch, the gear used and the location. On June 22, Ogden fished all day and had only three of legal size of 125 fish caught.
Kaz Yamamoto was in Ucluelet the next day plotting the boundaries of the closure imposed on the Big Bank. Kaz obtains the text of fisheries announcements and makes sure they get good distribution among his fellow Japanese fishermen. That day we heard that the trollers Suunta and High East had been anchored in Tofino — the owners had given up, the rumor had it, and turned the vessels over to the bank. David and Marg Healy were taking just the opposite approach in Spring Cove. Their four-year-old Ocean Siesta looked as good as the day it came out of the boatyard as they polished it up for coho season. A winter fishing cod kept the wolves away from their door. Down the floats Stuart Phillips paused from some carpet-laying on his Yuri long enough to clear for another year. A few days later we stopped for a pleasant evening at Ecoole where Oscar and Lee Roman are keeping an eye on the Mary Todd, which B.C. Packers is using to provide ice for seiners on the grounds. Helping on the transfer barge is industry veteran Ken Cameron. We all agreed Oscar's stories of the coast would make an excellent book, or two, or three. The next day we were among the first to congratulate Mike Mulligan of Miss Moira on his third grandchild — a seven-pound nine-ounce boy. Mike heard the news in Bamfield and he sounded pretty cheerful as he said good-bye and headed back out to fish.
• The seiner Quadra Isle is lying at Duncanby after an engine room fire which gutted the hull. There was no word on whether the crew escaped safely.
The fisheries department and the Aluminum Company of Canada have renewed an agreement achieved after a bitter court battle last year to determine the flow of water to the Nechako River.
Fisheries minister Romeo LeBlanc said the current flow of 2,000 cubic feet per second will be maintained until more water is required to protect migrating salmon. That is almost four times the amount Alcan was dribbling into the Nechako last August when the department finally won a court order compelling the release of a larger flow. "If warm weather conditions indicate that water temperatures may rise too high, my officials will define the necessary additional flows required from alcan's Nechako reservoir," LeBlanc said. The new agreement will run for 12 months.
The Nechako reservoir is the source of hydroelectric power for the Alcan smelter at Kitimat. The company currently is seeking public support for expansion of the reservoir capacity. Alcan claims the Kemano project, of which the reservoir is a part, can be expanded without hurting salmon stocks.