Tag Archives: fish processing companies

A call for patience and empathy in a fishery dealing with Coronavirus

This letter is in response to Gabe Gregory’s May 4th letter, “Fish union’s delay tactics appalling.” Contrary to Gregory’s assertions, fish-processing companies are not operating during the COVID-19 crisis under some noble sense of duty to the province or nation and they are certainly not sacrificing for the greater good. Being labelled an essential service was a relief to processing companies. It meant they could operate and bypass social-distancing, crowd-size, and travel restrictions. It meant that the companies could take full advantage of the very lucrative snow crab fishery ($500 million in 2019) and lobster fisheries ($100+ million in 2019) that would be starting while the COVID-19 pandemic would still be highly active in our country. Being an essential service also allowed them to be amongst the first in line for government subsidies. By Keith Sullivan President, FFAW, >click to read< 15:49

Fish-NL: Competition Bureau closes investigation into collusion involving fish processors; harvesters wouldn’t name names

The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) is disappointed to learn that the federal Competition Bureau has closed its investigation into recent allegations of collusion involving fish processing companies. “Officials with the Competition Bureau say the people they interviewed wouldn’t give up names, and they couldn’t get the information they needed to carry out an investigation,” says Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL. “The cold, hard reality is that people living in small-town Newfoundland and Labrador fear repercussions for speaking out, and their livelihoods on the water will be jeopardized.” >click to read< 08:36