FFAW president blames 'outdated legislation' that makes it illegal for harvesters to strike

Fish, Food and Allied Workers union president Greg Pretty said Wednesday that outmoded laws and a backwards system have made it "illegal" for harvesters to strike and impossible for the FFAW to represent fish harvesters during a tie-up.

"Instead of helping to resolve the catastrophically low-price in spring of 2023, the ASP [Association of Seafood Producers] sat back and watched the fishery fall — only later deciding to take legal action six months after the issue was resolved and fishery complete," Pretty said in a statement. 

An arbitrator ruled that the FFAW union broke its collective agreement with the Association of Seafood Producers by telling crab harvesters to keep their boats tied up at the start of last season amid a price dispute.

In his decision, shared by the producers' association Tuesday, arbitrator David Orsborn concluded the union declared a "cessation of business dealings," which violated the terms of the agreement and the Fishing Industry Collective Bargaining Act.

"Unfortunately, fish harvesters felt they had to act but outdated legislation makes it illegal for harvesters to strike, as well as illegal for the union to 'authorize or declare a cessation of business dealings,'" Pretty said in the statement. 

The tie-up lasted six weeks, and was fuelled by calls for better prices for harvesters. The price of snow crab was originally set at $2.20 per pound — where it remained when the tie-up ended — but rose to $2.60 per pound by the end of the season.

In the statement, Pretty said the arbitrator decided that the FFAW "has to wait for the tie-up to happen before we are allowed to start talking about it."

He said the FFAW was "liable of declaring people would not fish," because it spoke publicly about what it was hearing from its members before the ASP decided to delay the fishery.

Pretty said in a statement that the ASP needs to provide proof that it suffered losses, something he suggests is challenging to believe when it was able to get crab "for so cheap."

"This is a backwards system where we cannot work on finding solutions to problems until they've already started — which is the current legislation that exists for fish," Pretty said. 

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