Thank you.
Thank you to the committee members for taking the time to hear from the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union today as we ask you to make the owner-operator fishery a priority in the 2024 federal budget.
As you may or may not already know, our union is the largest private sector trade union in the province, representing over 14,000 working people here in Newfoundland and Labrador. Over 10,000 of those members are professional fish harvesters, while around 3,000 others are processing plant workers. The long-term sustainability of the fishing industry is therefore of paramount importance to our members’ livelihoods, both now and into the future.