Strike Update – Crab fishermen stand strong, hold out for Pacific Seafoods pre-negotiated price

Commercial crab fishermen continue to strike along the West Coast, hoping processors will pay the $3 opening price that was negotiated prior to the season opening. Instead, wholesale buyers and processors have not budged on the $2.75 per pound they are now offering. The $3 per pound price was negotiated prior to the Brookings and Port Orford crab opening on Dec. 18. The price was lowered on Dec. 26, just eight days after that partial opening of the fishery. In response, crab fishermen from Morro Bay, Calif., to the Canadian border have tied up their boats. One local processor is Bandon Pacific in Charleston, a division of Pacific Seafood, which owns and operates more than 38 processing and distribution facilities from Alaska to Texas, with many of them on the West coast in coastal communities throughout the Pacific region. John Corbin, president of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, and a fisherman who lives in Seaside and fishes the Columbia River, said there has been “really no change” since fishermen decided to strike. Corbin said fishermen all along the coast in different ports have been meeting daily via phone conference, but processors have not met with them. Read the story here 10:51

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