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Equality of Ul Coverage Objective of Fishermen
John Rutka photos
• Seen here is the new 38 foot combination gillnetter-troller designed and built by Sather Boat Works for Eric Arkko onset1, secretary of the UFAWU Fraser River District Council. Powered by a 125 hp MD70 Penta diesel with 3-1 reduction turning a 34 by 22 inch prop, the vessel is equipped with Ekolite recorder and flasher. Decca 101 radar. Daniels 4-40 radiotelephone. Wagner Steering and pilot and Easthope gurdies. Drum and drive and stanchions are aluminum. Cabin, lined in white arborite. has every modern facility.
Vessel Replacement Announcement Soon
The Fisherman received several inquiries this week about an announcement federal fisheries minister Jack Davis said in an earlier statement he intended to make about further restrictions to limit the increasing overall capital investment in the British Columbia salmon fleet.
At the paper's press time this week, however, the announcement had not been made.
Text of a federal fisheries department release on June 19 read in part:
The number of vessels in British Columbia's commercial salmon fishing fleet is going down but replacements are adding to the overall investment in salmon fishing capacity.
■ Fisheries minister Jack Davis froze the salmon fishing fleet in September 1968. but figures released show that while there has been a reduction this year in the
Minimum Waived
The federal fisheries department announced June 18 that it i* waiving the three pound minimum weight for bluebacks for this season only.
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total fleet by 344 vessels, the value has increased 3.3 percent or S3 million.
Davis said he was disappointed in the results and hinted at further restrictions to limit the continued value increase.
"With a good season in 1970 there is the danger that boat construction will pick up and tonnage rise.
"We must prevent this from happening and I therefore plan to make a further announcement next week about salmon vessel replacement," the minister said.
Commenting on the release. L'FAWU secretary Jack Xichol pointed out that the union had warned the minister repeatedly that his salmon licence limitation plan would not realize its stated purpose of reducing the admitted over-capitalization of the fleet and bringing about a better distribution of the catch.
But. he said, any changes made at this point in the season which adversely affected fishermen's right to fish would be a serious breach of faith.
Nichol noted that by the fisheries department's own figures, new investment in boats had added S17 million to the overall capitalization of the fleet since 1968.
Federal labor minister Bryce Mackasey's white paper proposals for a new unemployment insurance scheme would eliminate fishermen from coverage equal to that of other workers.
The government policy statement says that fishermen eventually will be available for unemployment insurance benefits only if they are working for someone else.
Self-employed fishermen will continue to be covered by the present scheme until an alternate plan for their protection is developed. The government claims alternate plans are being designed to protect self-employed fishermen "against risks peculiar to their occupation such as catch failure or closure of a fishery."
The government's announcement is not unexpected in view' of the Gill Royal Commission's recommendations on unemployment insurance and the pointed questions asked of witnesses by government members of the standing committee on fisheries and forestry during public meetings in B.C.
Prince Rupert Fishermen's Cooperative Association's brief to the committee openly called for a scheme paralelling that which the government n o w proposes for fishermen.
FISHERMEN 'SCAPEGOAT'
Shortly after fishermen were granted coverage under the Unemployment Insurance Act in April. 1957. the unemployment insurance fund was severly drained by high unemployment the following year. Fishermen with their alleged high benefit to contribution ratio became the scapegoat and there has been clamor in some quarters for their removal ever since.
Not clear is the government's interpretation of when "a fisherman is employed by someone else." The difficulty in the past has been to obtain government recognition that fishermen are workmen in fact and that a contract of service exists between the fisherman and the buyer to whom he sells his fish — the same contract of service that exists where an employer-employee relationship is readily distinguishable.
There can be no distinction between a "lone" or self-employed fisherman and a fisherman "who
works for someone else." Each is entitled to legislative' protection against unemployment as are workers in any other industry.
A full analysis will have to await announcement of the government's alternative plan for fishermen. But problems can be foreseen in determining what constitutes a "catch failure" or "closure of a fishery."
WHAT DEFINITION
Catch failures may well occur within defined areas of the B.C. coast while fishing is relatively good in other areas. Will a fisherman be entitled to benefits under the projected scheme because he guessed wrong and geared up for the area where the catch failure occurs? Or if through an engine breakdown or some other setback he misses a couple of weeks of prime fishing time? Or would a catch failure have to be industrywide affecting all fishermen such as happened in 1969?
Closure of a fishery will be as difficult to define. Not certainly in the case of the closure of the herring fishery in 1968 but predictions for poor runs which in 1969 prompted closure of the central area for the major part of the season and caused a disastrous season for inside seine boats and gillnetters.
Coverage of fishermen under the act has not been the great problem the government presents it to be. Initially the UFAWU campaigned for UIC benefits for fishermen who were in need as a result of a bad season. Typical government bungling included fishermen on terms that excluded those adversely affected, requiring a fisherman to show 15 stamps to be eligible for seasonal benefits. Since stamps required deliveries of fish, those who failed to deliver fish in each of 15 weeks were denied benefits.
A case in point is afforded by fishermen engaged in the summer herring fishery in 1967. Though
they spent weeks on their boats, they failed to catch and deliver any herring and were short the required 15 stamps. They were denied UIC benefits and government assistance, even though the fishery subsequently was closed.
UNION PROPOSALS
A 1961 UFAWU submission to a Committee of Inquiry into the Unemployment Insurance Act called for elimination of fishing stamps and full integration of fishermen into the act with workers of other industries.
The union's brief challenged government figures that attempted to show that fishermen received berrefits disproportionate to the amount of benefits paid in. The union pointed out that a single fishing stamp designated a claimant as a fisherman while he might have been employed the other 51 weeks in the year in another industry.
It stressed the fact that most fishermen augment their fishing earnings by employment in other industries but any benefits drawn were credited to them as fishermen, thus creating the apparent inbalance of payments to contributions.
Full integration of fishermen into the act is feasible with a sound system of contributions and entitlement to regular benefits. Anything less relegates fishermen to second class worker status.
Any alternative plan such as the proposed "crop insurance" must provide protection equal to that afforded other workers to be acceptable to fishermen.
B - C
PROPELLER REPAIRS
Furness St., New Westminster (Star Shipyards) Open Sat. to Noon
Phone 521-6222 P. Campbell Res. 327-5404
See us for your V-ROLLERS and GILLNET DRUMS
I. CHOLBERG
795 River Rd., Richmond 278-0630        Vancouver, B.C.
CONGRATULATIONS
ERIC ARKKO
on your new boat 'PREMIERE'
Northern Engine & Equipment (B.C.) Ltd.
396 West 5th Ave.     874-8111     Vancouver, B.C.
FROSTAD BOAT WORKS
(at Gunderson Slough) Annieville, North Surrey
Boat Building, Engine Rebuilding and Installation 9378 Alaska Way
584-6738
581-6611
Pacific Sheet Metal (1965) Ltd.
General Sheet Metal Works Heating and Roofing Contractors MARINE TANKS, STACKS, ETC.
Office: 753-2277
JACK STEVENSON, Mgr.
NANAIMO, B.C.
348 Selby Street ____
MIRACLE BRAND NETS
—Mono and Super Mono
SEINE WEB —Poly Borders  —   Also see the New 4-
strand Body Web
TROLLING GEAR —Sound Wave Lures. Hydraulic Drives
and the new Aqua Temp
—Canada Western Cordage and Herzog Braided Ropes
NET CO
THE FISHERMAN — JUNE 26, 1970