Fish plant workers: stop gutting West Coast fishery
Specifically, United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, were lobbying the parliamentary standing committee on fisheries and oceans to break what they describe as a monopoly held by Jim Pattison and his Canadian Fishing Co. (Canfisco) on fishing fleets, quotas and licences. They also want the government to restrict the practice of sending fish caught in B.C. for secondary processing to the U.S. or China. “The processing of fish that is owned by the people of Canada should benefit the people of Canada,” Arnie Nagey, a Haida citizen who worked as a millwright in Canfisco’s Prince Rupert cannery, told the committee June 7. “The boats should be owned by the people who fish them, not the company.” North coast fish plant workers want adjacency rules, which would require fish caught in Canadian waters to be processed in Canada. But that would likely trigger challenges under the North American Free Trade Agreement, said Rob Morley, Canfisco’s vice-president of product and corporate development. Read the rest here 13:37
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