Canada: Newfoundland and Labrador fish harvesters call for bargaining transparency

Newfoundland and Labrador fish harvesters call for bargaining transparency. The Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union of Newfoundland and Labrador is calling on the provincial government for urgent action to improve transparency in the seafood collective bargaining process. Under the current collective bargaining system, processors are not required to disclose any information on markets, price, pack-out, or yield. As a result, the Standing Fish Price Setting Panel, which sets most fish prices in the province, is often required to make decisions based on what the Panel itself has called a ‘paucity’ of information on markets for certain species. Sea cucumber is an emerging fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the latest species to be impacted by a lack of information available to the Panel. Instead of addressing a lack of transparency from processors, the Panel positioned that lack of information against harvesters, setting a low price and a new grading protocol that was not ...