As crab fishery protest enters fourth week, N.L. minister asks union for secret vote

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. –

Newfoundland and Labrador’s fisheries minister has waded into a standoff in the province’s snow crab fishery by asking the harvesters union to hold a secret vote about whether a work stoppage should continue.

Derrick Bragg wrote to the president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union Wednesday and requested that a secret ballot be held asking each crab harvester if they are “ready and willing to go fishing now” at current prices. Harvesters from the province have refused to fish this season, saying they can’t make a living off the $2.20 per pound price set early last month.

“I am aware that many harvesters are expressing frustration that they want to go fishing but fear retribution from other harvesters,” Bragg wrote. “They are very concerned that the season will be lost to them.”

The snow crab fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador opened in most fishing areas on April 10, but harvesters have kept their boats tied up to protest this year’s price at the wharf. Last season, prices opened at $7.60 a pound.

Prices are set by a government-appointed panel that hears arguments from the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Producers, which represents fish-processing companies. Industry experts say the global snow crab market has plummeted after record-high prices during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that many sellers are still trying to sell off product from last year’s catch.

The fishers union says that with wharf prices at $2.20 a pound, processors are asking harvesters to bear the brunt of the market fallout.

In his letter, Bragg noted that fishers in other provinces are out harvesting crab for prices that aren’t much higher. Harvesters in Nova Scotia have been fishing for $2.25 a pound.

The FFAW said Bragg’s letter is essentially asking for an illegal strike vote, adding that it undermines the union’s leadership.

“Minister Bragg is directly undermining the elected leadership of the union, and it’s clear he has absolutely no handle on the crisis facing this industry, let alone the basic laws governing his portfolio,” Greg Pretty, the union’s president, said in a news release Wednesday night.

Members of the FFAW (Fish, Food and Allied Workers) and their supporters rally at the Confederation Building in St. John’s, Monday, April 17, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

Hundreds of harvesters rallied at the provincial legislature on April 17, demanding that Bragg intervene and force the pricing panel back to negotiations.

“Instead of stepping in as a provincial regulator to change the flawed price-setting process, Minister Bragg continues to be a spectator,” Pretty said Wednesday.

Snow crab is Newfoundland and Labrador’s most valuable seafood export, accounting for more than half — $883 million — of the $1.6 billion generated by the province’s fisheries in 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2023.