Prince Rupert Shoreworkers have new Collective Agreement

Labour peace will be secured for this salmon season and three more to follow as the union representing shoreworkers at Canadian Fish Company plants in British Columbia announce that a labour agreement has been reached for workers on the North Coast.

Local workers voted and approved the latest CFC offer on June 2nd at Fishermen's Hall in Prince Rupert.

The new agreement features what UFAU-Unifor calls a modernized wage structure, outlining how the salaries will be the same in the Fresh Fish and Cannery areas for the same classifications of work.

The highest rate paid for the job (between cannery and Fresh Fish areas) will now make for the new base rate.

There is also a new rate in place for New Hires for fish plant work, with new employees for the North Coast operations paid 16.00 per hour, compared to the 15.65 starting wage in Vancouver.

General Labour rates have seen an increase of 75 cents over four years.

The two negotiating teams also worked towards creating more or new work in all of the Canadian Fish plants in the province, with that in mind, the new agreement will allow for Prince Rupert workers to travel to the Home plant in Vancouver to get additional work, while the same option will be offered to southern plant workers wishing to come north when work is available.

Those that will be called to work under that program will be contacted ahead of probationary workers and behind CFC workers who have accumulated 400 hours of work.

Another area addressed in the new contract was the issue of Temporary workers employed at the CFC plants in Vancouver. Those employees who work there through Temporary work agencies can become CFC employees after 200 hours at Canadian Fish as well as keep their status with the Temporary Work Agency.

The new contract will also provide for new anti-bullying policy and a new reporting and investigation procedure. Job Postings will also come with clearer language to better explain the job opportunities that are available.

There's a new labour agreement in place for shoreworkers
at the Canadian Fish Plants in Prince Rupert

The set up for salmon season is already underway at the Canadian Fish Plants on Drydock road and Seal Cove in Prince Rupert, no indication was outlined from the contract announcement as to what kind of year the local facility is anticipating, or what levels of employment opportunities may be available this summer in the community..

The Draft Integrated Fisheries Management Salmon Plan for Northern BC for the period of June 2017 to May 2018 is available from the UFAWU-Unifor website, you can examine that plan here.

The new agreement comes in the wake of recent changes at the Drydock road facility, which saw the canning lines removed from service, UFAWU-Unifor have not provided any updates related to their efforts to address their concerns over adjacency in the fishing industry and their desire to see the fish that is caught in the north, processed in the north.

The notice of the contract agreement was provided to the local Prince Rupert UFAWU-Unifor Facebook page.

For more items related to other notes and issues in the Fishing industry see our archive page here.

For other areas of Labour issues across the Northwest see our archive here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.