• Another brailer of fresh herring from Strait of Georgia waters is lifted from hold to dockside at Steveston as shoreworkers unload catch destined for canning line at Paramount plant.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
HERRING DISPUTE
At Deep Bay meet
Trailers back price demands
general rule only when an individual owner has submitted written reasons for consideration prior to a deadline set by the union.
In line with this past practice, the union this year agreed again to consider specific exceptions to the rule and a bulletin went out from the FVOA to its members last month urging that written applications be placed in the union's hands before January 24.
Five applications from FVOA members were received and processed. At a herring fishermen's membership meeting on January 26 the applications were rejected on the basis of information that UFAWU members would be laid off to make room for the five owners.
After a further meeting held at the request of the FVOA on February 4, the union herring committee reviewed the applications and a decision was taken by a membership meeting on February 5 to reconsider them. The outcome was that four applications were cleared and the fifth rejected on the same grounds as before.
This membership meeting flatly turned down the vessel owners' bid to establish a new set of rules in the herring fleet, making it clear that UFAWU fishermen were not
DELTAGA BOAT WORKS
9317 River Road Delta 584-0322
FIBERGLASS FISHING
BOATS
32' to 37'
Moulded 1-piece fibreglass cabin, front deck and bulwarks. To any stage of construction.
prepared to surrender their jobs in wholesale lots to make room for owners. FVOA STAND
Earlier, FVOA secretary Frank Buble had warned that his members would "withdraw their services or not sail" unless they had their way on the hiring issue.
Buble said the FVOA would ask the Fisheries Association to support the owners by keeping company seiners in port.
The FVOA has declined to be specific about the number of owners it would like to see placed in the fleet, over and above those sailing on their own boats.
For reasons best known to itself, the FVOA is attaching great importance to winning the right to place two of its members on each seiner.
Buble's estimate of the number of owners that could atually be placed at the present time has varied from "maybe up to 10" to "a maximum of 20positions."
The union's position is that UFAWU members will sail on any vessel given proper clearance. "If the owners tie up a portion of the fleet in an effort to get more of their members employed, the union membership doesn't intend volunteering to stay in port to help them achieve that end," a union spokesmen declared after last Saturday's membership meeting.
UFAWU committee members and FVOA spokesmen are scheduled to discuss the issue further at a meeting tentatively scheduled for this Wednesday afternoon, February 9.
MEET SCHEDULED
A full membership meeting of all herring fishermen in port will be held in Fishermen's Hall, Vancouver, at 10 a.m. this coming Saturday, February 12.
Meanwhile, the FVOA is holding its annual ball in Burnaby this
Friday, February 11. A bulletin issued by the FVOA last month said: "Because of the earlier opening for herring, we have pushed the date of our annual ball to February 11, sooner than we would have it normally."
Another issue, involving a change in manning on some herring vessels, has been resolved by a coastwide vote of herring fishermen.
By majority vote, union members this week agreed to permit the employment of up to eight men on drum seiners, on condition that captain and crew mutually agree to such an upward revision in manning and that the additional men are retained for the season.
Previous crew complement on drum seiners using power skiffs was six men, compared with eight men on table seiners.
The UFAWU and Fisheries Association agreed earlier that shares would be divided equally on a per capita basis where six-man and eight-man vessels were operating in a pool.
Later, some drum seiner captains said they wanted to increase crew complements to seven or eight men. The January 26 membership meeting decided to maintain the manning arrangements set out in the agreement unless it was agreed that additional crew members would be paid by the companies rather than out of the pool.
The companies predictably refused to pay for extra men and there is nothing in the agreement requiring them to do so.
Subsequently, the membership meeting of February 5 reconsidered the earlier decision and agreed to the revised manning formula for drum seine vessels. Later votes at Prince Rupert and other coastal points produced similar results.
DEEP BAY — A meeting of salmon troll fishermen at Deep Bay on February 3 endorsed the decision by last month's UFAWU trollers' conference to seek a minimum price agreement for the 1972 season.
Sixteen trollers joined the UFAWU after the meeting.
Attending on behalf of the UFAWU were Vancouver Island organizer Bert Ogden, trollers' steering committee member Walter Tickson, and Walter Hudson, Nanaimo delegate to last month's conference.
In other moves, the meeting voted to apply for a UFAWU local charter at Deep Bay and named a seven man committee to extend union organization in the area.
Elected chairman of the organizing committee was Leon Myhres of Deep Bay. Other members are Henry Frost, Tito Myhres, George Smith and Ed Sylte, all of Deep Bay, and Andy Knorr and Ed. Irwin of French Creek.
Deep Bay was a particularly appropriate site for a meeting to discuss the winning of a troll price structure.
As Ogden pointed out, the first signed price agreement on the B.C. coast was probably the one reached 37 years ago between Deep Bay Packing Company and troll fishermen members of the old Fishermen's and Cannery Workers' Industrial Union.
The historic agreement was
signed on June 27, 1935, after a solid tieup of the Gulf of Georgia blueback fishery.
"No one should try telling us that trollers can't get together and establish a minimum price structure," Ogden said.
"The 1935 trollers' strike and the agreement it won were landmarks for all organized fishermen and show what can be done."
Trollers' meetings, open to UFAWU members and non-members alike, have been set up or are in the process of being arranged for other Vancouver Island points.
Already scheduled is a meeting in Discovery Inn, Campbell River, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 13, and another in Comox Indian Band Hall, Dyke Road, at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 15.
DELTA WELDING & MACHINE SHOP
H. JENSEN
Aluminum Winches and
Drums Hydraulic Drum Drives Tanks - Repairs
99561 Gunderson Road 584-4244 R.R. 1, New Westminster
Announcing. . .
Gulf and Fraser FISHERMEN'S Credit Union
31st ANNUAL MEETING
NOTE THIS NEW DATE AND TIME
SATURDAY, FEB. 19 at 6 p.m.
to be held in the
GIZEH SHRINE TEMPLE
3550 Wayburne Avenue, South Burnaby 4 Blocks East of Willingdon along Canada Way and turn South One Block
LOTS OF PARKING
SMORGASBORD, MUSIC, DANCING & SURPRISES
Smorgasbord — 6:00 p.m. Meeting — 7:30 p.m.
Dancing and Refreshments following the meeting
Please Note: Due to the limited dining facilities Smorgasbord will be served to ticket holders only — a maximum of 400.
BRAIDED 'SAMSON' LINES
Manufactured by CANADA ROPES LTD., Richmond, B.C.
FIRST WITH FISHERMEN
For Fast No Roll-up Sets, Use . . .
SAMSON 2 in 1
Spliceable Leadcore Leadlines
SUITABLE FOR DRUM OR TABLE SEINE Most Flexible Leadline Made — Now Spliceable (Eye or Long Splice) Weight per Fathom from 4 to 12 lbs.
SAMSON
POLYESTER N-12 PURSELINES
SAMSON Braided Nylon Seine Corklines and Leadlines
GREATER ABRASION RESISTANCE — FLEXIBLE — SPLICEABLE — EASY TO HANDLE
OCEAN MASTER Braided Seine Net Line for Corkline or Leadline
SAMSON Quick Splice Poly Seine Beachlihes
DURA and PACIFIC MASTER
Gillnet Corklines
DURA, RIVER MASTER & OCEAN MASTER Gillnet Leadlines
ORDER NOW TO ENSURE PROMPT _DELIVERY_
e.p.leckieltd.
THE BEST KNOWN FISHING SUPPLY HOUSE _ IN THE WEST_
1748 West 4th Avenue Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: 731-2175
THE FISHERMAN — FEBRUARY 9, 1972