The FFAW says a blockade in Argentia on Thursday involving fish harvesters was not a union sanctioned event.
Some harvesters, upset over low crab prices, protested first at FFAW headquarters before moving on to the provincial Fisheries department office on Strawberry Marsh Road and then to the White Rose construction site in Argentia where they blocked workers from accessing the site.
FFAW President Greg Pretty told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly the protest was not an event planned by the union.
He says “if you set something in motion, then it’s very easy to turn it off” but in this case, the protest wasn’t something the union set in motion.
Pretty says TradesNL has recognized that the FFAW was not involved in preventing workers from entering the site.
Carpenters Union Reacts
That explanation is not sitting well with Mike Williams, President of the Carpenters Union Local 579, and regional manager with the regional council of Carpenters, Millwrights and Allied Workers.
He says his union supports fish harvesters and the fishery, but he’s angry with what happened on Thursday at his worksite. Many of his workers punch 12 hour shifts and many had to stay on site for an extended period as a result raising questions about safety.
He says union sanctioned or not, the FFAW should have done something to quash the protest which affected hundreds of his workers.
He’s heard that the FFAW had nothing to do with the protest, but he wants to know why the union didn’t do anything to stop it. “It was a slight against the construction industry,” says Williams.