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Vol. XXVI. No. 28.
VANCOUVER. B.C.. AUGUST 16, l%2
Ministers Urged to Act In Dispute
Federal fisheries minister H. J. Robichaud and provincial labor minister Leslie Peterson have been asked by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union to indicate to the Fisheries Association "the urgency and advisability of an early decision" to permit Mr. Justice Victor Dryer to proceed with arbitration of its dispute with the Union.
Arbitration proceedings have been adiourned since the initial meeting last week in which Association counsel M. M. McFarlane said he would have to consult the Association before he signed a Union proposed document allowing Mr. Justice Dryer to decide the scope and terms of reference of arbitration.
"We have clear instructions from our membership regarding acceptance of Mr. Justice Dryer's decisions as final and binding. In our view there is no valid reason for the Association to refuse to accept his decisions as final and binding," the Union said in its letters to Robichaud and Peterson.
STAND REVERSED
"We recall the Association's original expression of confidence on July 31 in the integrity of the person who would be appointed by the two governments as arbiter.
"We also recall the Association's accusations of 'stalling' and 'wasting time' when the Union, on July 31, attempted to negotiate the scope and terms of reference of the proposed arbitration.
"At that time the Association was pressing the Union to call the strike off 'immediately' and 'forthwith' and to allow the arbiter to decide everything, including the terms of reference.
"Only after the Union committee indicated willingness to recommend acceptance of your suggestion, that in default of an agreement on terms of reference the arbiter's decision be accepted, did the Association reverse its position.
"Later, we believed they (the Association) agreed to accept his decision. Today, they appear to be still unwilling to accept the arbiter's decision . . ."
Seattle
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14 HALIBUT Chix lb. 18-21c
Medium.................. lb. 20.6-22.4c
Large fb. 23c
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15
BAY FISH EXCHANGE
(Troll Prices)
SPRINGS
Large red lb. 67c
Medium red _______ lb. 47c
COHO lb. 32c
PINK lb. 15c
Vancouver
THURSDAY, AUGU HALIBUT
Chix _............_..............__
Medium _______.........
Large ............_■..........._______ I
WEEK ENDING AUG SPRINGS
Large red
Medium red _______
Small red ........
Large white ......._.....
Medium white .....
Small white
COHO (troll) ...........
OTHER SPECIES
Sole........................._.....
Red and rock cod ______
Ling cod (trawl)
Ling cod (troll) ..........
Shrimp meat
Minkfeed _____________...........
Crab in shell lb
Crab meat ________....... lb
ST 15
lb. 18-21c lb. 23-23.4c lb. 23-23.2c UST 10
lb. 78-80c lb. 60-62c .... lb. 45c lb. 57-60c lb. 45c lb. 30-35c lb. 30-35c
. lb. 8-9c . lb. 5-10c
..... lb. 13c
lb. 10-12c . lb. $1.20 lb. The. $2.50-$4.00 $1.20-$ 1.25
Prince Rupert
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14 HALIBUT
Chix....................................... lb. 17c
Medium ............ lb. 21.7c
Large __. lb. 22.3c
WEEK ENDING AUGUST 10 SPRINGS
Large red ........_____________ lb. 72c
Medium red....................... lb. 52c
Small red lb. 38c
Large white ____ lb. 50c
Small white lb. 32c
Ketchikan
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13 HALIBUT
Chix _________ lb. 14c
Medium ... lb. 19c
Large lb. 20.25-20.9c
RED SPRING
Large lb. 65c
Medium lb. 35c
Small lb. 25c
WHITE SPRING
Large lb. 40c
Small lb. 20c
COHO lb. 20-26-30c
Juneau
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13
RED SPRING
Large ................ ............. lb. 65c
Medium — lb. 35c Small ...... lb. 25c
WHITE SPRING
Large ______....................----- lb. 40c
Small _............................. lb. 20c
Longshoremen Win Big Contract Gains
TRY ME BARBECUED
—Fisherman phot(.
That's what it says on the pink salmon displayed by Fisherman Publishing Society office worker Rebecca O'Kane. She's handling the fish rather gingerly, partly because she's afraid of what it says on the price tag. The fish weighs 5.21 pounds and it sells at 49 cents per pound or S2.55 for the whole salmon, including the tail. Nowhere does it say the salmon is a pink for which fishing companies are now paying net fishermen 10 cents a pound in the round, pending arbitration. The pink salmon was bought at Safeway Stores a few days after the strike ended.
Salmon Catch Picture Dull
Heavy fog hampered mid-week fishing in Juan de Fuca Strait and upper Johnstone Strait, but apart from some fair pink catches in the central area, fishing was generally poor along the coast.
Total for 70 seiners in Juan de Fuca Strait on August 14 was 4.932 sockeye, 2,053 coho, 61,595 pinks, 2(5 chums. No gillnet figures were available.
In upper Johnstone Strait, deliveries by 33 of 130 gillnetters fishing in the vicinity of Malcolm Island and Blackfish Sound totalled 203 sockeye, 94 coho, 707 pinks, 67 chums.
Rivers Inlet produced a total of 54 sockeye, 4,188 coho, 1,310 pinks, 703 chums for 57 gillnetters on August 14.
BELLA COOLA FLEET
The largest section of the gill-net fleet was concentrated around Bella Coola, where 352 boats totalled 74 sockeye, 493 coho, 87,942 pinks, 2,069 chums on August 14.
Another 156 gillnetters fishing in Fisher Channel - Fitzhugh Sound the same day had a total of 96 sockeye, 624 coho, 7,488 pinks, 4,524 chums.
For 38 of the 66 seiners in the area the total was 117 sockeye, 1,130 coho., 24,917 pinks, 2,431 chums.
Whale Channel also produced a few fair pink catches for 57 seiners on August 14, their totals being 215 sockeye, 3,729 coho, 39,038 pinks, 1,689 chums, but 73 gillnetters did less well with 149 sockeye, 1,730 coho, 6,650 pinks, 931 chums. LAREDO SOUND BEST
In Lewis Passage-Squally Channel on August 14, the total for 56 gillnetters was 440 sockeye, 1,078 coho, 3,309 pinks, 445 chums, and for 17 seiners, 81 sockeye, 885 coho, 1,093 pinks, 203 chums.
Some of the few fair sockeye catches in the central area went to 28 gillnetters and nine seiners fishing Laredo Sound on August 14. The gillnet total was 1,010
Salmon Pack Takes Jump
British Columbia s canned salmon pack — 450,961 cases as of August 10 — has risen to the level of the 1959 and 1960 packs at the same date, although it is less than half the 1961 and 1962 packs.
The sockeye pack of 122,153 cases is the smallest at mid-August in the past six years, and the pink pack of 217,974 cases lags far behind 819,714 cases packed at the same date last year and 41V 452 cases in 1961. It is, however, ahead of the 1959 and 1960 packs.
The coho pack, smallest since 1960. stands at 51,980 cases, and the chum pack of 37,896 cases is around the average of the past five years.
sockeye, 430 coho, 2,339 pinks, 248 chums, and the seine total, 936 sockeye, 69:! coho. 17,587 pinks. 577 ■chums.
Farther north, 148 gillnetters in Principe Channel totalled 2,315 sockeye, 3,388 coho, 15,190 pinks, 1.047 chums, and 21 gillnetters at Kitkatla, also on August 14, totalled 32 sockeye, 60 coho, 3,378 pinks, 16 chums.
Total catch for the Nass area on August 14 was 268 sockeye, 874 coho, 11,571 pinks, 1,254 chums.
Howe Sound Open to Nets
Howe Sound will be opened to commercial salmon net fishing starting at 8 a.m. Monday, August 19, to 8 a.m. Wednesday, August 21. with the exception of Horseshoe Bay and the head end of Howe Sound easterly of a line between Watt Point and Woodfibre and also Thornbrough Channel.
Howe Sound was closed to salmon net fishing on July 20, 1957. The present opening is to prevent overescapement to the spawning grounds in the Squamish River system.
The run of pink salmon presently returning to this area resulted from a very large spawning in 1961 which produced an above normal output of fry.
Skeena Run Under Low
With an anticipated total of one million fish, the Skeena River sockeye run will fall 100,-000 short of even the minimum predicted by the Skeena River Management Committee last January, according to the Committee's bulletin for the week ending August 11.
The Committee's prediction was for a run ranging between 1,100.000 and 1,600,000 fish.
Sockeye catch for the week of August 11 was placed at 44,-909 fish, bringing the season's catch total to 135,713. Escapement total to the same date was placed at .742,000.
The pink catch of 262,474 for the week represented the bulk of the 286,974 catch total this season. The pink run is reportedly the smallest since 1955.
British Columbia longshoremen will finish voting this Saturday on a recommended new agreement which gives them assured union jurisdiction, wage increases totalling 44 cents over three years, protection against automation, and greater welfare benefits.
The memorandum of agreement was initialled August 6 by representatives of the Canadian coast negotiating committee of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the Shipping Federation of British Columbia, and the BC Wharf Operators Association, concluding protracted negotiations.
In the year following expiry of the old agreements on July 31, 1962, stalling by employer organisations and delay in handing down conciliation board findings threatened negotiations on several occasions until they ground to a standstill in June this year.
The coast negotiating committee placed the issue before the membership, receiving an overwhelming 94 percent vote approving strike action if necessary to break the deadlock. ^
In face of the membership's resolute stand, the employer organisations resumed negotiations and the outstanding issues were resolved.
CONTRACTS CONSOLIDATED
The recommended agreement concedes a major Union demand by consolidating all previous agreements into two contracts, one with the Shipping Federation, the other with the Wharf Operators.
Provisions have been written into these agreements to bring about greater uniformity, so that by the end of the contract period lower paid dock and coastwise shipping workers will have reached wage parity with. deepsea longshoremen.
Across the board wage increases call for 15 cents effective August 15 this year, bringing the deepsea longshoremen's base rale to $3.09 an hour; 10 cents on February 1. 1964, eight cents on August 1, 1964, and 11 cents on August 1, 1965.
Workers receiving less than the deepsea rate will get additional increases of 15 cents on August 1,
Abstention End Sought By Japanese
An Associated Press report from Tokyo this week claims that the Japanese Fishery Association has called on the government to demand that the abstention principle be scrapped in International North Pacific Treaty negotiations due to be resumed September 16 in Tokyo.
The Association, which speaks for the Japanese fishing Industry, said the tripartite pact should be scrapped unless Canada and the United States agree to drop abstention from the Treaty.
Negotiations over revision of the 10 year old Treaty took place in Washington last June but they were adjourned when the three nations were deadlocked over what changes should be made. Japan proposed a new "conservation agreement" in place of the present treaty. The US and Canada called for retention of the abstention principle by which Japan is not permitted to fish halibut, salmon, or herring east of 175° west longitude if the stocks are fully utilised, properly regulated, and under extensive scientific study.
Tokyo newspapers were reported as claiming that restrictions on Japanese halibut fishing east of the treaty line, 175° west longitude, handicap the industry in negotiating agreements with the Soviet Union and Korea.
1964, February 1, 1965 and February 1, 1966 until they reach the deepsea rate.
GUARANTEED WORK OR PAY
Under an automation protection plan workers are guaranteed 35 hours of work or equivalent pay, with provision for early retirement and vesting rights. Other clauses provide for retraining and relocation of workers displaced by technological changes.
Wharf workers, who now lack uniform welfare plans, will gain the most from improved welfare benefits requiring all employers to contribute 16 cents an hour for I pensions.
"The ultimate objective is a single pension plan, as of January 1, 1969, after the existing pension
plans expire," The Dispatcher reported.
Concessions obtained by employers under the recommended agreement consist largely of changes in gang sizes to bring them into closer conformity with changes already in effect on the US Pacific-coast.
Except for shift guarantees for bulk cargo, no basic changes in hours and shifts are made by the recommended agreement, although provision is made for opening negotiations next year on "the advisability and feasibility of the introduction of a two shift i eight hour day shift, 7% hour evening shift) arrangement, including appropriate guarantees . . ." without effect on the agreement.
'Ready' Set For Service
The new Canadian Coast Guard cutter Ready, commanded by Capt. Tohn Strand, left Vancouver on Wednesday this week for service at Victoria preparatory to taking up active duty on the Pacific coast.
One of five similar patrol vessels built or under construction for the Canadian Coast Guard, the Ready was launched from Burrard Drydock Shipyard on June 28 in a ceremony performed by Mrs. T. C How, wife of Dr. How, the transport department's regional director of air services.
The Ready will be the third of the new cutters, each 95 feel in length and designed after similar US Coast Guard cutters, to go into service. Two are now on active duty on the Atlantic coast, another is intended for duty on the Pacific coast and the. fifth will patrol the Great Lakes in summer and the Atlantic coast in winter.
Three smaller 70 foot cutters are also being built for search and rescue duty on the Great Lakes.
The Ready did around 20 knots in recently completed trials and has a cruising range of 1,500 nautical miles at 14 knots.
'Province' Answered
Same Old Poison From Same Source
(The following statement was issued this week on behalf of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union by business agent Alex Gordon.)
* * *
ON MONDAY, August 12, the Vancouver Province carried a sloppily written, horribly inaccurate smear article dealing with the recent fishing industry strike under the headline: A Strike Plagued Industry Reaps Legacy of Bitterness.
The article, in a rather pitiful attempt at appearing learned, opens with: "Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad." Aside from its lack of originality, the quotation is incorrect and is thus the first in the numerous array of mistakes, errors, half truths, and falsifications which make up the piece.
"Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad" is the correct quotation. Unless, of course N. Hacking, author of the diatribe, is accepted as qualified to correct the classic English interpretation of Euripides.
In any case, whether it is fitting in this reference is debatable. For instance, was the Fisheries Association crazy (mad) in proposing that fishermen take a cut of at least 25 percent in their take home pay for pink salmon? Or were fishermen insane (mad) in refusing to accept such a cut without a fight?
If we substitute "greedy" for "crazy" in the case of the Association, it makes more sense, and we don't think even such a tried ami true champion of the employers as Hacking would say workers' were "crazy" to fight against cuts in take home pay.
Use of such a quotation is therefore just about as sensible as the recent remark of R. L. (Bob) Payne of Todd's, as quoted in the Sun, that the strike was engineered by the Union leaders and was necessary to them so their control of the members would be ensured. The proposal by fishing companies to cut fish prices and refusal to apply a majority conciliation board award to shoreworkers evidently only "happened" to coincide with the nefarious plans of the "hard working," "able," "hard bitten," "scrupulously honest," "intelligent," and "dedicated," but "Communist" Union leaders. (The words quoted are from recent newspaper articles.)
See SAME OLD POISON—Page 2
In Salmon Pack Contesf
Aug. 25 Deadline Coming Quickly
Midnight Sunday, August 25 is rushing right out of the calendar but readers wishing to enter the nineteenth annual Salmon Pack Guessing Contest can beat it by rushing their entries into the mail box immediately.
We're talking about the deadline for guesses in the free contest sponsored annually by The Fisherman with $100 in prizes for the three persons coming closest to the actual number of cases of salmon canned in British Columbia this year.
First prize winner will receive $75, second $15, and third $10, with the awards to be made in December when the federal fisheries department releases its final pack figures for the 1963 season.
Awards are announced and cheques mailed in time for Christmas.
We repeat: This year's deadline for entries is midnight, Sunday, August 25. Last minute entries must be postmarked with that date to qualify.
The rules are simple. The contest is free, it's open to all readers, but there is a limit of one entry to each contestant.
Contestants have only to answer the following question on the coupon below:
How many 48 pound cases of salmon of all species do you think will be canned in British Columbia this season?
Following are previous annual packs:
YEAR No. of Cases
1962............................................................... 1,815,609
1961........................ ...... ............ 1,403,994
1960 ___________......_................................................ ............. 632,089
1959 1,089,799
1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952
1,908.056 1,437,642 1,112,830 1,406,230 1,743,406 1,82.1,269 1,286,468
1951 1,955,475
NOTE: Pad figures are unrevised as issued by the federal fisheries department at the end of each year on which contest results are based.
Mail to: THE FISHERMAN
138 Ea.il Cordova Sheet Vancouver 4, B.C.
ENTRY FORM
I think the total salmon pack in 19(i:i will be '
NAME ADDRESS