FFAW says no snow crab will be processed until ‘fair’ price is agreed to

The union representing fishery workers in Newfoundland and Labrador says there will be no snow crab processed in the province until they get a deal for a “fair” price.

The Fish, Food & Allied Workers union said it did not make submissions on Wednesday to a panel tasked with setting the price. It also walked away from talks with processors the day before, after accusing them of giving a lowball offer.

According to the union, the price processors were offering — after 13 hours of talks — was three cents below last year’s price of $5.25 per pound. The union says the outlook for prices this year is better than 2025.

“As long as the price remains unacceptably low, there will be no crab processed in Newfoundland and Labrador plants,” FFAW-Unifor president Dwan Street said in a statement posted to social media Wednesday evening.

“We will not allow ASP [the Association of Seafood Producers] to continue dictating a price that has no basis in reality, and we will not allow our members to receive a lower share than they’re rightfully owed.”

CBC has contacted the Association of Seafood Producers for comment.

The crab fishery is slated to open in most areas on April 5, and this dispute comes ahead of a deadline to set a price. Since the FFAW and ASP could not negotiate a price, the matter was put into the hands of the standing fish price setting panel, which will make a binding decision.

The panel was scheduled to meet on Monday — and the union had planned to protest — but a 48-hour postponement was announced after Premier Tony Wakeham reached out to the union, and the demonstration was then called off.

The panel now has until Friday to release a decision. The FFAW said its representatives did not appear before the panel on Wednesday or make a submission, “allowing the hearing to proceed in protest with ASP presenting alone.”

Earlier this week, the union took issue with the process, and called for the end of binding arbitration to set a price.

“We want to go back to traditional negotiations where you sit down to a table and you make a deal,” said Jason Sullivan, a crab harvester and executive member of the FFAW.

ASP executive director Lorelei Roberts said earlier this week that the FFAW had refused to bargain and it hadn’t provided any offers to the ASP. She said they had been reaching out regularly to the union through the price bargaining facilitator. Roberts said the ASP put in a first offer, which the FFAW did not respond to.