The evolution of fish trades associations and their changing role in the collective bargaining process in Newfoundland and Ladrador

• Main Author: Grant, Paul G.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2003
• Subjects: Newfoundland; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/10570/; https://research.library.mun.ca/10570/1/Grant_PaulG.pdf

In the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the evolution of Fish Trades Associations and their Union counterparts has been greatly impacted by the historic relationship between the processing sector and the harvesting sector. Processors, or merchants as they were traditionally referred to, have gone through a cycle over the past 60 years or more from holding tremendous power over fishers through what was known as the truck system, to today's environment characterized by legislation aimed at protecting the independence of fishers. -- The fishing industry has also undergone widespread change since the late 1940s when saltfish was king and the frozen fish sector was in its infancy. Since then the frozen industry has become the dominant sector. Until the early 1990s cod was the primary species, but since the decline of cod stocks throughout the 1980s and early 1990s and the resulting closure of the Northern cod fishery, shellfish had become the dominant sector. Trade unions have become a significant factor affecting all aspects of the conduct of the fishery from price issues with buyers to international issues such as the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) stock regulations and foreign overfishing. Processor associations on the other hand have seen their position of power erode beginning with the collapse of Newfoundland Associated Fish Exporters Limited (NAFEL) and its exclusive right to market saltfish, to the Fisheries Association of Newfoundland and Labrador's (FANL) inability to gain accreditation as the sole bargaining agent for all processors in the Province. -- There are many notable milestones in the evolution of processor and harvester organizations. Included in these milestones are the formation of the first fishermen's benevolent organization, the Society of United Fishermen (SUF) in 1873, the formation of the Fishermen's Protective Union in 1908, the formation of the Frozen Fish Trades Association (FFTA) in 1944, the formation of the UFFA WU, the predecessor to today's FFA W, and ...