Hal Griffin photo
• Overcrowding at the floats in Port Hardy, long protested by Port Hardy UFAWU Local, is depicted by this photo taken when the combination of a commercial fishing closure and an influx of pleasure craft placed tieup space at a premium.
Program needs tightening up
What about clearance?
By GEORGE HEWISON
This year the UFAWU big boat clearance program has shown a few cracks. A tendency on the part of some to view the clearance program too casually had led to some vessels sailing for the fishing grounds without having first obtained a union clearance.
While most of those vessels obtained their clearance after a week on the grounds, a few have waited until the closing weeks of
the season before entering the union hall, and some only after checking up by a union representative.
One vessel, the Phyllis Carlyle, a trawler which sometimes serves as a packer, has refused to obtain a clearance.
The union clearance program has been worked out as a means of enforcing collective decisions of the membership and is, therefore, basic to the organization of those
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If the membership makes a collective decision or takes collective action, the clearance program is the way to ensure that responsibility for carrying out the decision is uniformly and fairly carried out. The clearance program ensures that everyone carries his weight through union membership, in upholding the organization.
The clearance program equally is the only means of guaranteeing the job security of union members because it takes job seeking out of the "dog-eat-dog" arena created when the clearance program breaks down and makes union organization ineffectual. '
Only the members themselves can tighten up the clearance program. Delegates on vessels as union representatives of the crews bear a prime responsibility to see that the entire clearance program works, but this often requires the support of the entire crew.
On some boats this season, the major excuses have been lack of time to come in on weekends, or distance from the plant where the vessel is lying to the union hall, and the exorbitant taxi costs. In considering these excuses, the alternative must also be weighed — no clearance program!
The clearance program in most locals among the big boat fleet is 99 percent effective. It's the one percent which undermines the decisions of the membership, however, and to which the membership must address itself.
Otherwise, the decisions of the membership, the long hours of discussion, consideration and debate along with all the years of struggling to achieve effective organization are reduced to meaningless exercises as the "few cracks" become gaping holes.
Determination by the membership now to make the clearance program 100 percent effective can save a lot of effort in the future.
Locals protest strait closure
Meetings called by UFAWU locals at Alert Bay and Campbell River on August 25 voiced strong criticism of the Fisheries Service's decision to shut down the Johnstone Strait salmon fishery for two consecutive weeks.
The "meeting at Alert Bay heard many of the 50 fishermen in attendance questioning the local fishery officer closely on his reason for recommending the closures in Areas 12 and 13.
Alert Bay Local secretary Norm Sumner said answers given by the officer failed to satisfy the meeting. However, a request for fishing time in the strait during the week beginning August 27 was forwarded to the Pacific regional office in Vancouver.
Fisherman's death probed
A police investigation is continuing into the death of commercial fisherman Erich Lippa of Nanaimo, who was found dead aboard his troller Comfort 2 in Hecate Strait on August 20.
Police said Lippa had been stabbed several times. The injuries apparently were inflicted late on August 18 or early the following day.
Lippa's boat and her dead owner, discovered at anchor southwest of Bonilla Island by another fishing craft, was towed into Prince Rupert by the federal transport department ship Alexander Mackenzie.
RCMP at Prince Rupert this week declined comment on whether there are any leads in the case. A coroner's inquest was convened in the north coast city August 28 and then adjourned pending further investigation.
Lippa, formerly listed as owner of the Slowpoke 3, acquired the 40-foot Comfort 2 in 1968.
The request was turned down by the regional office. Ian Todd, head of the department's southern operations division, said that following a review of the situation the closure was upheld as being essential for the protection of local pink salmon stocks.
The Johnstone Strait pink fishery prior to the closure had been "disastrous," Todd said.
During the last two-day fishery in mid-August, a total of 60,000 pinks had been taken in Area 12. "The run should have been at its peak then and had it returned in the volume we were looking for it might have yielded a catch of half a million fish," he said.
Estimated escapement in Area 12 for the closed period during the last week of fishing had been about 20 percent of brood year levels, he added.
The Johnstone Strait fishery opens for two days on September 3 when it is anticipated local pink runs will be returning to Bear River and streams of the Lough-borough-Bute system in Area 13. Mainland inlets will remain closed.
Todd said that an earlier partial opening of Johnstone Strait would not have been feasible because "with desperately low levels in Area 12 we obviously couldn't risk having the whole fleet concentrating in Area 13 alone."
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— SEPTEMBER 1, 1972/7