Fisherman's Road

I delivered the following remarks on Friday, Dec. 30th, 2016 during a news conference after FISH-NL filed an application for certification with the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations Board. Good morning, thank you for coming.  Earlier this morning an application was presented to the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations Board requesting that FISH-NL be certified as the new bargaining agent for inshore fish harvesters. The application includes membership cards signed by inshore harvesters from more than 300 communities around the province. We feel we have the support of more than 50 per cent of all inshore harvesters that we know of — we certainly had the support of more than 80 per cent of all harvesters we encountered.  But there are few certainties in this process.  FISH-NL does not know the exact number of inshore fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador, because we were not permitted access to a definitive list. Such a l...

Inshore fisherman Samuel Lambert of Southport, Trinity Bay, says he hasn't paid union dues to the FFAW in about 12 years. "The FFAW wasn't doing nothing for me," said Lambert, 71, owner of a 43 footer. "It wasn't listening to we, and shagging us in every way." So Lambert, whom I met up with in December during a FISH-NL meeting in Hodge's Cove, did something about it. Every year for about a dozen years, Lambert presents the below letter to the processor who buys his fish, revoking assignment of his union dues and directing that no further funds be withheld from his pay and forwarded to the FFAW. Here's a copy of his letter.  Find the actual legislation (Labour Relations Act)  here — section 35 (3).  Lambert also refers to the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act, section 7 (1). Find it here . I spoke recently to Glen Branton, CEO of the province's Labour Relations Board, regarding Lambert's claim t...