Support program disastrous: FFAW

The make-work program unveiled by the provincial government on Oct. 5 to provide temporary support to harvesters and plant workers is disastrous, according to the Fish, Food and Allied Workers' (FFAW) union.

The provincial government is calling the Community Enhancement Employment Program (CEEP), offered through the Department of Municipal Affairs, a response to a downturn in a 2009 fishing season which saw lower landings of certain species, lower fish prices for species like lobster and cod and catch failures in most areas for lumpfish.

Green Island Cove's Loomis Way, one of five inshore members of the FFAW union, is calling the program something different.

"I just see it as a joke, really, it's a farce," Mr. Way said. "People are very disappointed, very unhappy with the approach the government is taking. If this is any indication, b'y, there's going to be some rough times ahead, no doubt about it."

The government's pitch is this: Harvesters who grossed less than $3,780 qualify for the work program with a wage of $9 per hour and plant workers who worked less than 420 insurable hours.

According to the FFAW, a significant number of plant workers province-wide have seen their hours and incomes decline this year by roughly 30 per cent, with their EI claims dropping at a comparable rate.

"These are best case scenarios," FFAW secretary-treasurer David Decker said. "I cannot imagine many harvesters or plant workers in this province who will see any tangible benefit from this plan this year - it's like throwing a glass of water on a five-alarm fire."

Mr. Way said most harvesters would have grossed $3,780, and that if the provincial government wanted to help, it would have given harvesters who earned between $8,000 and $9,000 an opportunity to earn another $3,000 to $4,000 to significantly increase their EI benefits for the winter.

"But even if they did, and had more than that, it's still peanuts - poverty," Mr. Way said. "I'd say (harvesters will) all be negatively affected by it, because no one's going to be qualifying. In communities around (the Northern Peninsula), I don't see anybody who didn't gross that much money."

Mr. Way was part of the FFAW delegation that met with Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Tom Hedderson and officials from the Departments of Human Resources, Labour and Employment (HRLE) and Municipal and Provincial Affairs in August.

He added that the result was way off the mark from what the union had lobbied for.

"It's not anywhere near what we were asking for," Mr. Way said. "What we went after, and what we were hoping to get (for the fish harvesters), because it was such a bad year, was that the harvester could get hired, and the money he would make would help him get up to the top insureable earning stage, get some half decent EI. That's what we were hoping. But the way they got it in place now, if a fish harvester made $3,780, he can't even qualify."

The CBC reported Mr. Hedderson as saying the provincial government's response was "very generous."

Mr. Way disagreed.

"Ah - no, no, no, no," he said. "Why don't Tom Hedderson try living on 100 bucks a week."