Docksides have been the focal point for debate about the future of the large, powerful union that has represented tens of thousands of fish-processing plant workers and fish harvesters since the early 1970s.

The Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW) took shape in 1970, when Richard Cashin, a fiery lawyer who had lost his seat in the House of Commons after just one term, began travelling the province with the intent of organizing fisheries workers.

The drive soon defied predictions that fishermen were too independent to put up with a union controlling to whom they could sell fish and at what prices. Instead, the FFAW immediately changed the structure of a fishery that had been controlled by a small group of private interests for 200 years.

Prices for fish were negotiated with processing companies each year, and fish harvesters were pleased to discover that the threat of strike action typically bore positive results for them.

Then came the cod moratorium in 1992, with the loss of more than 20,000 jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador. The FFAW was criticized roundly for not demonstrating leadership on the critical issue of resource conservation.

In the years following the moratorium, the FFAW became increasingly intertwined with the federal government in licensing, science and professionalization. And, increasingly, fish harvesters complain about the FFAW being largely a delivery arm of the federal government.

Even so, few people paid much heed when another recently defeated federal politician began touring the province’s outports, much as Cashin had done almost half a century earlier. Ryan Cleary spent one term as an NDP MP until his defeat in 2015.

In mid-2016, the tough-talking former journalist announced the creation of a rival union, the Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (a.k.a. Fish-NL). If successful, Fish-NL will represent fish harvesters, with the FFAW holding onto plant workers.

Labelling the FFAW the “saltwater mafia,” Cleary accused that union of pandering to government and of being unable to represent both fish harvesters and processing workers effectively. When Cleary succeeded in signing up more than half of all fish harvesters – thereby triggering a union certification vote – the FFAW finally began addressing its existential crisis.

FFAW leadership accuses Fish-NL of lacking a clear vision beyond signing up fish harvesters. The FFAW also points to the lack of resources within Fish-NL, although much the same could have been said about Cashin when he created the FFAW decades earlier. If Cleary persuades a majority of fish harvesters to sign Fish-NL union cards, then 2017 will be an interesting year for the fishing industry in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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