Committee Appointed to EI & Early Retirement Program Fight-Back Campaign

9/21/2004

Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW/CAW) President Earle McCurdy has appointed a Committee of local Union leadership to co-ordinate a renewed fight-back campaign aimed at seeking changes to the country’s Employment Insurance Program and an Early Retirement Program for fishery workers.

Allan Moulton, vice-president of the FFAW/CAW Industrial Section and chair of the FPI plant in Marystown, will chair the Committee. He will be joined by Irene Ploughman, union chair at Shawmut Fisheries in Witless Bay; Barry Randell, union chair at FPI Bonavista and Executive Board Member; Paul Kean, union chair at Beothic Fish Processors in Valleyfield and Executive Board Member; and Matt Kelly, FPI Port au Choix and Executive Board Member.

The role of the Committee will be to step up the Union’s campaign for a better E.I. Program and an early retirement program for fishery workers. The Fightback Committee met for the first time Monday in St. John’s to discuss strategy and outline a plan of action.

The Union has been advocating for changes to the E.I. Program since major cuts were made to it in 1996. Since then FFAW/CAW has been part of lobbying effort by workers and their unions throughout the country to get an E.I. Program that meets the needs of working people. Workers have already been successful in getting some changes including the elimination of the intensity rule which penalized seasonal workers by lowering their benefit rate to 50% from 55%; the development of a small-weeks exclusion measure; and an additional five weeks of benefits for workers living in high unemployment regions (above 10%).

Prior to the federal election, FFAW/CAW President Early McCurdy stressed the importance of seasonal jobs to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy, the need for an early retirement program in the fishing industry, and recommended improvements to the country’s Employment Insurance Program when he appeared before the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Seasonal Work. That Task Force has yet to complete its work.

During the election, the Union canvassed candidates running for office and last year it coordinated a postcard campaign.

Mr. Moulton said with the election of a minority government the time is right to increase the political pressure. He noted that the Committee will be talking with FFAW/CAW members throughout the province and urging them to get even more involved by writing MPs and MHAs, by seeking meetings with their elected representatives including municipal leaders and by participating in a other campaign efforts such as a major petition drive.

The union has requested meetings with NDP Leader Jack Layton, Minister of State Responsible for E.I. Claudette Bradshaw, and John Efford, Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative in the federal cabinet.

Seasonal industries such as the fishery which contributes more than $1 billion annually to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy and employs approximately 24,000 people are critical to the economy of our province and the entire Atlantic region.

More than 30% of workers in this province are seasonally employed and the percentage is even greater for rural regions which are so dependent on seasonal jobs. These seasonal jobs also generate year-round activity in many other sectors. Estimates are that an additional 7,000 spin-off jobs come from the fishing industry.

But the industry, especially on the processing side, is plagued by an aging workforce. “We need for an early retirement program which would allow workers to retire from the industry with dignity and in turn open up doors for younger workers or strengthen the jobs for those who remain. TAGS did not finish the job it started out to do,” said Mr. Moulton.

A government report confirmed this assessment. An HRDC evaluation of the TAGS program concluded that “clients and their industries and communities face enormous adjustment problems which will take decades to address.”

The adjustment programs ended with TAGS, but the need for them did not, he said.

The fishery has embraced technology and automation in order to compete globally, and while the industry is more productive and generating more wealth, there are fewer jobs and most of those jobs, especially in the processing sector, have been diminished despite this increasing wealth and productivity.

But instead of adjusting the E.I. rules to reflect the increasing level of productivity and provide extra protection for workers who experience reduced work content as a result of technological change, the EI Program has created a double whammy by making the rules tougher at the same time as available work in many industries is diminishing.

The key to EI changes is to simplify the system, basing benefits on the best 12 weeks worked.

The union’s recommendations for Improving the EI Program also include reducing the number of qualifying hours, eliminating features such as the divisor rule, and simplifying the rate calculation system, increasing the benefit rate, eliminating the two-week waiting period, introducing a training insurance entitlement and removing work disincentives. These changes would benefit all seasonal workers, especially women who were hit especially hard by the E.I. cuts in the 1990s.

Another issue is the huge surplus in the E.I. Account, currently at over $50 billion. Some of these funds can be used to encourage older workers to retire when restructuring and layoffs are expected.

The nearly $10 billion in premium reductions have gone too far and it is past time to shift the debate from premium cuts to improvements to the program, said Mr. Moulton. “The federal government has benefited from the E.I. Program by using the surpluses in E.I. premiums to get rid of the deficit. Businesses have benefited from annual premium reductions. It’s time for workers.”

The E.I. Program is funded by workers and employers.

For more information contact Lana Payne, FFAW/CAW Communications, at 576-7276.

How to contact the Committee:

Chair: Allan Moulton – 279-4113 or 277-2796 (cell)

Irene Ploughman – 334-2407

Barry Randell – 468-2872

Paul Kean – 530-2261

Matt Kelly – 861-3462

Click here to go back to EI News