-

Jack Nichol, president, United

Fishermen and Allied Workers .

Union, writes: The fishing in-
dustry has witnessed the almost
complete destruction of the herr-
ing fishery during the past three
weeks without a ripple of protest
from editorial writers or the pro-
vincial Politicians charged with
safeguarding our interests. The
roe fishery produced $123 million

~ on landed value on a catch of

43,000 tons in 1979. This year’s
10,000-ton catch, taken from
stocks desperately needed to
restore a devastated resource, will
return less than $7 million. Gone
as well are the jobs of thousands
of shoreworkers who had
counted on the roe fishery to sup-
port them through a difficult
winter.

Herring stocks are at the brink
of extinction eight short years
after the roe fishery began. The
blame for this rests squarely on
the shoulders of the fisheries

department, which consistently

managed the resource to max-
imize profits for the processors
regardless of the: consequences.
The tragic experience of the herr-
ing fishery will quickly be
repeated in salmon unless the

ple of B.C. demand an end to
the frantic auction of our fisheries
TESOUICES. : ;

Herring production, like
salmon, has been characterized
by 4ncreasing concentration on a
single Japanese market capable
pearing apparently continual

rice increases imposed by the
jant multinationals that
dominate the Japanese economy.
These firms, aided by the
oligopoly of B.C. Packers and
Canadian Fish that already

vince. They can now exercise
market control from the dock in
B.C. to the retail outlet in Japan.
This market has been developed
at the expense of broadly-based
traditional markets and through
emphasis on premium-priced
fresh and frozen products with
minimum labor input.

. Every step of the way, this
takeover has been facilitated by
government. In herring,. the
fisheries department refused,
‘right to the last, to implement
management measures proposed
by the membership of the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union and endorsed by the
Native Brotherhood to limit the
frenzied fishery so destructive of
the resource.

The department refused to bar
moonlighters from the fishery —
doctors, lawyers and other part-
timers in for a quick buck — who

increased pressure on the stocks. .

And the department imposed,
only with the greatest reluctance,
minimum standards to ensure
basic processing was performed
in Canada rather than overseas.
Neither the federal nor the pro-
vincial governments required
disclosure of ownership by firms
which invested so heavily in the
processing sector. The alliances
consummated between B.C,
Packers and Canadian Fish on
the one hand and Taiyo, Mit-
suibishi and Marubeni on the
other have not been subjected to
combines investigation.

"We have opposed the massive -

infusion of new capital, which
would only exploit an already
over-exploited resource in an in-
dustry heavily over-capitalized
with surplus processing capacity.

dominated the processing sector, We protested the dislocation of
have invested heavily in this pro- the established work force and

\.

es =,

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43rd Anniversary
Social, concert & dance
- Russian Hall
600 Campbell Ave., Van.
Admission $6.00

GOOD MUSIC, DANCING 9 p.m. on
REFRESHMENTS, SUPPER

Saturday, March 29 - 6:30 p.m.

GLOBE TOURS
The complete
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~

“OPEN FORUM
__ Fisheries being sold at ‘frantic auction’

co gy ey

there were practically no jobs.

warned of the long-term instabili-
ty that would inevitably result
from the new round of capital in-
vestment. There is no comfort in
the fact that we were right.
Fishermen, shoreworkers and
tendermen are left holding the
empty resource bag while B.C.
Packers and Canadian Fish,
together with their Japanese
cohorts, move on to greener

. Pastures in Alaska, where herring

stocks there are the next target.

. Twice we marched on fisheries
department headquarters to de-
mand a sensible management
System. We were ignored.
Assured that stocks could tolerate
a 35,000-ton fishery, we set out to
bargain for realistic minimum
prices that would reflect the value
of the fish and our costs in
harvesting it. The Fisheries

iation demanded 50 percent.

cuts in 1979 minimums and
fishermen struck rather than auc-
tion the remaining stocks at fire

~ Sale prices.

The fisheries department now
has admitted that no fishery
would have been possible if union
and Brotherhood fishermen had
Not tied up. As it was, the limited
stocks available were offered to
strike-breakers, in openings
designed more to undermine the
strike than to protect the
resource. Despite the best-efforts
of organized fishermen, the peo-
ple of B.C. have once again seen
\ herring, a key to strong salmon

4

en) oe ey ; 2B Si

ey
a

SHOREWORKERS PROCESSING HERRING, 1978: . . . this year

- Stocks, mortgaged to give pro-

cessors a quick buck.

Editorial writers have heaped
condemnation on union and
Brotherhood fishermen in the
past when they struck for better
prices, but in this instance, there
was Silence. The spectacle of
multinational capital locking out
organized fishermen by refusing
to bargain in good faith while the
last remnants of the stock were
harvested has passed almost
without comment.

Only the joint negotiating
strength of the union and the
Brotherhood stands in the way of
a similar debacle during the
salmon season. Our fight is the
fight of all the people of B.C. to
control the production and sale of
their own resources for their own
benefit.

To win this battle in the fishing

industry we'need government ac- *

tion on three levels: provincial
amendments to the labor code'to
make collective bargaining by
fishermen a legal fact with the full
protection of the law; federal and
provincial legislation to control
foreign investment and monopo-
ly control in the fishing industry;
and finally, provincial action to
ensure that British Columbia’s

fishing resources are processed in

B.C.

Only with those initiatives can
we be sure that the fishing in-
dustry, so critical to our economic
well-being, will survive and

flourish. J

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Showing at the Robson Square Cinema.
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Saturday, March 22 at 7 p.m.

Proceeds to COPE school board committee

CLASSIFIED —
ADVERTISING

MARCH 23 — Norman Bethune
series in Vancouver. “Organized
Labor After the Federal Election”
with George Hewison, Britannia
Centre, Rms. L5 & L6 (off. court-
yard), k1661 Napier st., Van. at 8
p.m.

MARCH 23 — Norman Bethune
series in Surrey. ‘(Quebec Referen-
dum” with Ben Swankey, Douglas
College, Rm. 406, 9260-140th St.,
Surrey at 7:30 p.m. ;

MARCH 28 — YCL volleyball, Lord
Nelson School, 2200 Charles St.,
Van. at 7:30 p.m. All welcome.

MARCH 29 — Cruise the EAST-
ERN MEDITERRANEAN via slides.
See Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt,
Israel and Yugoslavia, Saturday, at
535 East Broadway, 7:30 p.m. Ad-
mission $3. Includes refreshments.
Sponsored’ by the West Side Club.

MARCH 29 — Mackenzie-Papin-
eau 43rd anniversary. Social, con-
cert & dance. Russian Halli, 600
Campbell Ave., Van. Good music,
dancing 9 p.m. on. Refreshments,
supper. Adm. $6.

MARCH 30 — Pancake breakfast,
Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 a.m., 3310
Cardinal Drive, Burnaby. Cost $4;
children half price. Proceeds to
Tribune. Sponsored by Burnaby
Press Club.

APRIL 19 — Convention banquet
& dance commemorating the 45th
anniversary of the Communist press
in B.C., 7 p.m., Blue Boy Hotel, 725
S.E. Marine Drive at Fraser St.,
Vancouver. Tickets $12 each. Lim-
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684-4321.

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HALLS FOR RENT

RUSSIAN PEOPLE'S HOME —
Available for rentals. For reserva-
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‘WEBSTERS CORNERS HALL —
Available for banquets, meetings,
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685-5836.

"UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CUL-

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Sunday, April 13—8 p.m.
Queen Elizabeth Playhouse
Admission: $4.00

_ Tickets:
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805 E. Pender
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677 E. Hastings

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 21, 1980—Page 11