Crab harvesters' union calls for price formula set out in past provincial report

With their boats tied up and crab pots still on dry land, fish harvesters and union officials are calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to revisit a 2023 report that sets out what they say is a fair way forward for the snow crab fishery.

At a news conference in St. John's on Wednesday, Fish, Food & Allied Workers union president Greg Pretty pointed to a report last year from the province's fish price-setting strategic review team, chaired by Glenn Blackwood.

Pretty says the pricing formula set out in that report, which followed a six-week tie-up last season, would give harvesters a fair market share.  

"The intent of the report was to tie the market share of Newfoundland crab to the harvesters, and what we had at the end of that process was an 18-year historic study which said, yes, there's a better way to do business. There's a better way for harvesters, there's a better way forward on the industry," he said.

Pretty's push for Blackwood's formula comes while harvesters and processors are at an impasse on a pricing formula for crab.

The province's price-setting panel chose a price formula put forward by the Association for Seafood Producers, which sets a floor price of $2.60 per pound. On April 2, the FFAW said its members cannot fish under that price formula and harvesters tied up their boats.

Bargaining between the ASP and FFAW began in December, but the two sides couldn't reach a deal on a pricing formula and broke off talks in late March.

Pretty says the price-setting panel's decision to choose the ASP's formula contradicts what was set out in Blackwood's report.

"The importance of the Blackwood report is that it shone a light on what we were missing, so for the first time, we had an independent source. It wasn't just us at the table saying we should have more money, it was the panel saying we [should have] had more money," he said.

"To walk away from it is absolutely stupid, and hence the problem. We thought we had a different way to go on this one."

Glen Winslow, a St. John's harvester who was part of the bargaining committee, says the formula set out in Blackwood's report would have allowed for a larger share for harvesters if the markets had performed better.

"Markets tend to fall during the fishery and then they go up after the fishery, and the Blackwood formula offered us an opportunity to capture that and be fair to all harvesters," Winslow said.

"The Blackwood formula would have fixed all our problems, but it was thrown out at the last minute." 

Pretty says the union is willing to continue to have meaningful conversation with the ASP to reach a deal and get boats back on the water but harvesters want their share.