Come together
FFAW will try to do a better job at communicating with members: Spingle
As the FFAW (Fish, Food and Allied Workers) union faces an exodus of members, staff representative Jason Spingle said the union is taking the issue very seriously.
FISH-NL, the Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador — an effort of former MP Ryan Cleary and fishermen Jason Sullivan and Richard Gillett — held meetings in Corner Brook and Clarenville this week to gauge and drum up support for the new union.
Spingle, who works out of the FFAW’s Corner Brook office representing members from the west coast, Northern Peninsula and Labrador, said he’s seen the coverage of the meetings and recognized a lot of the faces of those who are supporting FISH-NL.
With around 2,000 members in the region though, Spingle said there were a lot of people who were not at the meetings.
He’s also talked to some who went just to see what those behind FISH-NL had to say, and what solutions they offered. To that end, Spingle said he hasn’t heard any specific details at this point.
As the process unfolds, Spingle said the FFAW will continue to serve its members and try to do a better job of communicating with them. He said the focus is on the positive.
“We’ve been successful, I think very successful in many cases, working together.”
Some of those successes include a lobster buyback on the west coast to lessen competition by removing over 200 enterprises, higher halibut quotas, better pricing for lobsters and halibut and, the big one, LIFO (last-in, first-out).
Had the FFAW had not led the charge and plant workers and harvesters hadn’t come together, Spingle said, they would not have won the LIFO fight.
He also said the union has a commitment from the federal government for the first 115,000 tonnes of cod.
“We argue about what we’re going to do with the fish after we get it, but if you don’t get the fish then there’s not much to argue over,” he said.
With all the positives, it bothers him that the people he works for are willing to switch allegiance.
“I don’t want to see that … I’d rather that they were working with us,” he said.
“People will make their own choices.”
As for what happens to the FFAW if FISH-NL is successful, Spingle said that remains to be seen as the union’s membership is made up of more than just harvesters.
“There’s a lot that’s got to happen yet.”