FISH-NL writes premier about union, certification board relationship

The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) has written the premier with serious concerns about how the provincial corporation responsible for the professionalization of inshore harvesters has been portraying itself.

“The head of the Professional Fish Harvesters Certification Board has said the board ‘operates independently and on an arm’slength basis from the FFAW’ when that is clearly not the case,” Ryan Cleary, President of FISH-NL, said in a news release.

“Not only is the certification board located in the same Richard Cashin Building in St. John’s as the Ffaw-unifor, but the two organizations have owned the property together since 2009.

“It’s not possible to be independent and arm’s-length when you’re practically married, and living under the same roof.”

The release notes that in a Nov. 23, 2017 letter to the province’s Labour Relations Board, Mark Dolomount, executive director of the certification board, expressed concern that his group wasn’t playing a more “significant” role in the investigation into FISH-NL’S then-application for certification as bargaining agent for inshore harvesters.

The certification board runs the fish harvester registration system, and the Labour Relations Board had been trying to get a handle on the number of inshore harvesters in the province, the release states.

In his letter, Dolomount wrote that not consulting the certification board cast “serious doubt” on the credibility of the organization, which “operates independently and on an ‘arms-length’ basis from the FFAW.”

“The fact the board owns property with the Ffaw-unifor makes Mr. Dolomount’s written statements, at the very least, disingenuous,” Cleary wrote in the letter to the premier.

Cleary also noted that seven of the certification board’s 15 board members (as dictated by provincial government legislation) are Ffaw-unifor representatives.

FISH-NL has begun a second application for certification, which it expects to present to the Labour Relations Board in early November.