Shelburne Clearwater Lobster Fleet To Join Union

Clearwater's Lobster Fleet fishermen out of Shelburne have voted to join a union. The province's Labour Board has certified a recent vote by the fishermen, allowing them to become members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 864.

Chris Mayberry is a UFCW organizer. He says one of the main issues for the fishermen has been the disparity between time spent at sea and time home.
Mayberry says: "Equal time ashore, equal time at home. A lot of the guys have families and the company would come in and you'd go out on a trip for 5, 7 possibly 9 days and then you'd come back and they'd ask you to come back the next day and get on the boat again. So a lot of the guys though that was a big issue as far as shore time."
Clearwater and the UFCW will begin talks soon on a collective agreement for the fishermen.