Indians obtain stay of buy-back auction
TACOMA — Granting of a temporary restraining order sought by several Indian bands has forced postponement of Washington state's first fishing vessel buy-back auction.
The Indians applied for the restraining order in U.S. federal court because the Washington state legislation governing the buy-back program specifically prohibits anyone, treaty or non-treaty fishermen, from buying the vessels for the purpose of fishing commercially for salmon in Washington state waters.
"We are obligated to get the maximum return to the state for the sale of these vessels," explained Washington state fisheries director Don Moos. "If the court determines that another user group could bid for the vessels, it would allow an even greater competition for the limited number of boats, commanding higher prices for them since they could be used for their original purpose. Consequently, he would have a higher dollar return to the state."
Washington state fisheries department has rescheduled the auction for 10 a.m. April 24 at Harbor Marina in Tacoma.
After 50 years' fishing
Haig-Brown wants union to back up spring claim
One of three Canadian commissioners on the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission has asked for more information to back a UFAWU contention that over-cropping by sport fishermen of Fraser system spring salmon has taken place on spawning grounds.
Emphasizing, however, that he was speaking as an individual and not as a commission member, Roderick Haig-Brown replied to a letter from secretary John Stevens of the union's Fraser River District Council that he wasn't aware "of any fishery of this intensity on any part of the Fraser system, nor am I aware of a fresh water sport fishery on chinooks anywhere that is capable of serious cropping."
Stevens raised the point in a letter to the commissioners in which he requested extra fishing time for Canadian fishermen in
District 1 of convention waters to compensate for the month late opening on Fraser springs.
Fishing is prohibited until April 19 — a move ostensibly aimed at protecting spring salmon passing through the lower Fraser on their way to spawn in the Lillooet-Birkenhead system.
Initial reaction from the council was condemnation of the new restriction, claiming the answer to stock depletion is an immediate salmon enhancement program and not further studies which are continuing in advance of the planned federal-provincial enhancement program.
ROE HERRING
Still a mortgage to pay
What kind of a man was George Callow, whose name tragically appeared as a casualty on daily newspaper front pages when the Canfisco, packing herring for Canadian Fishing Company, hit the rocks in Fitz Hugh Sound on March 12?
Why was he still working as a tenderman at the age of 68, reportedly suffering from a heart condition?
There is no pension scheme for fishermen, although the idea is discussed from time to time. But in an occupation which gained universal compensation coverage only this year — 60 years after the first Workmen's Compensation Act was passed in this province — winning of a pension scheme, contributory or non-contributory, has been subordinated to more immediate needs.
So long as a man is physically able to hold up his end, he can continue to fish or pack fish well past the generally accepted retirement age of 65. For many, however, there is no choice.
Last week The Fisherman talked with Clarence Callow, George's brother, when he visited Fishermen's Hall to discuss with UFAWU welfare director Glenn McEachern the benefits Vi Callow, George's widow, will receive from the United Fishermen's Welfare Fund — one of the enduring gains the UFAWU has won for its members over the years.
Until 1958 Clarence was a fisherman, a founding member of the UFAWU, as George was, and a veteran of 20 years with B.C. Packers. For the past 19 years he has worked on the Gabriola
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Island ferry, from which he will retire as senior skipper in two months to the little farm he rents on Gabriola Island.
He is the youngest and only surviving member of a family of five brothers and one sister. Charles, Russell, William and now George are dead. So is the sister, Ada. But a dozen cards in UFAWU membership files bearing the Callow name attest the fact that a younger generation is carrying on the tradition of a fishing family, although George himself had no children.
As the children of Ed Callow, one of the first steam donkey engineers on this coast, Clarence, his brothers and sister grew up around Quathiaski Cove, where George was born, and on Quadra Island.
"My father donated the land on which the Heriot Bay school was built and that's where we got our schooling," Clarence recounted in his quiet unassuming way.
There was no pension for Ed Callow's family when he died. The younger sons had to leave school and find work, and fishing offered the only opportunity. George and Clarence went seining.
"Both of us worked on the Quathiaski No. 8 — that was Chief Billy Assu's boat," said Clarence.
The sense of community on Quadra Island was strong and the Callow brothers took an active part in promoting it.
"George was quite musically inclined — he had a good voice — and three of us, Bill, George and myself, formed an orchestra to play for the dances and whatever community entertainment was organized," Clarence recalled. "It was the only music on Quadra Island in those days."
From seining George turned to fish buying in the early thirties, running the Algoma for Sid Mowat, and then back to seining as an engineer. Engines and machinery intrigued him and,
learning from observation and practice, he acquired a name as somewhat of an expert on Caterpillar engines.
That reputation gained him a job at Celtic Shipyard, overhauling engines and machinery for B.C. Packers, and he worked there for 26 years, going out on seiners and packers in the summers.
"Suddenly he was let go," Clarence related. "There was a shakeup in management and he had a run-in with the new man who was throwing his weight around.
"George was a good worker, but he never could stand up for himself. That's the way he was and all the advice in the world couldn't change him.
"There he was, out of a job after 26 years and he still had a mortgage to pay. He had no choice but to continue on the packers."
George Callow's 50-year and more fishing career ended, as it began, under the same compulsion, forced to work at an early age because his family needed the money and to continue well past retirement age because he still needed the money.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
committee were being consulted along the coast about a course of action following membership rejection of study sessions proposed tentatively for March 14.
Their recommendation to accept the companies' March 12 offer came relatively quickly and the coastwide vote was conducted March 17-20.
Standing pat on their offer of $263 a ton gillnet, the companies had upped their seine offer by a meagre 50 cents a ton.
It meant they had not moved on the gillnet price since they placed their revised offer of $263 on the table February 9. Their seine offer had crept up by only one dollar.
At its final session with the companies, the herring negotiating committee said it would recommend settlement on the basis of $159 seine and $289.50 gillnet.
Though the final labor rates are somewhat less than those hoped for, there have been important breakthroughs elsewhere.
Two dollars a ton now will be the companies' contribution into the welfare fund, a total of 75 cents having been extracted from them during negotiations.
The gillnet packing fee has been upped $15 to $60 a ton in the event packer service is not available.
For the first time, the principle that the companies reimburse crew members at the regular tonnage rate, for herring lost at sea, is protected by contract.
"It always has been the practice in the herring fishery that the crew would be paid for lost herring, but some question was raised last year as to whether the companies would be obligated to continue this practice," Nichol explained.
"Now, clearly they are."
In a field related directly to the crucial issue of safety, the union also may claim a tactical victory.
Having received from the Fisheries Association, during negotiations, a copy of a letter the association sent to member companies advising them that provision for adequate rest in fact is assured by the existing tendermen's agreement, the union now may raise rest as a formal grievance issue.
The association letter insisted that all company packer fleet skippers be made aware of the situation.
Indications are, however, that the matter of crew complements on packers is far from settled, UFAWU business agent George Hewison reported. Hewison headed tendermen's negotiations this spring and predicted the issue will loom large this summer.
He noted that the number of licensed packers in the roe herring fishery this spring has more than tripled from 1975. Some 205 vessels are participating, about 150 of them as part of the company fleet.
The result has been less overall work for individual tendermen and compression of available work into fewer days, he said.
While the roe herring quota coastwide originally was set at 67,500 tons, the Fisheries Service reported March 25 that current landings stood at almost 75,000 tons while the quota has been upped to 77,000 tons.
Sub-area totals as of early the same day showed: Queen Charlotte Islands, 8,000 tons; central area, 7,000 tons; upper east coast, 1,500 tons; Strait of Georgia, 7,500 tons and west coast of Vancouver Island, 50,000 tons.
A fisheries spokesman said herring abundance, on the west coast in particular, was better than anticipated.
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THE FISHERMAN — MARCH 26, 1976/3