New programme targets 'most dangerous' fishing sector

http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/6275

05/08/2011

The ITF and IUF (International Union of Food Workers) have launched From Catcher to Counter, a programme to build worker representation and improve conditions in the fishing industry.

The new initiative is designed to cover the whole industry from ‘catcher to counter’ – with the following aims:

• Increase union membership

• Increase union power

• Standardising conditions across multinational companies

• Work to improve terms and conditions

• Guarantee conditions of workforce

• Put workers at the centre of the campaign

• Establish process to assure that fishing is not illegal, unregulated and unreported

Ron Oswald, IUF general secretary, explained: “The fishing industry is vast, vital, but often unregulated. Fishing is one of the world’s most dangerous occupations, something that has been vividly underlined by the recent release of casualty figures from the IMO (International Maritime Organization), which estimates the annual death toll among fishers as a chilling 24,000 per year.”

Liz Blackshaw, ITF/IUF fisheries programme leader, added: “The starting point for this important new joint effort is to gauge the depth of union coverage across this whole industry. That information is essential for us to develop an organising plan for the industry, and we’re asking ITF and IUF-affiliated unions to help us find it. We’d like them to go to www.itfglobal.org/fish/index.cfm  and fill out the survey they’ll find there.”

She continued: “The need for representation and protection for fishers is being shown right now in New Zealand, where ITF unions have pushed the government into declaring a ministerial inquiry into the often scandalous conditions in which many foreign fishers have been made to work.”