Better times may be ahead for plant workers in St. Anthony in 2021.
Quin-Sea Fisheries Ltd., co-owners of St. Anthony Seafoods with Clearwater Seafoods Ltd., is upgrading the plant’s equipment and hiring more workers in anticipation of it becoming a multi-species plant this year.
Equipment upgrades have been underway since fall 2020, and the company is currently advertising for a number of positions, such as operations manager, production supervisor, off-loading facilitators and processing plant labourers.
Trudy Byrne, the FFAW union local chair of St. Anthony Seafoods and plant worker of over 20 years, is optimistic about the 2021 season given these developments.
“To me, it sounds promising,” she told SaltWire. “It’s very positive-looking going forward.”
St. Anthony Seafoods had been operated primarily as a shrimp plant through a partnership between Clearwater Fisheries Ltd. and St. Anthony Basin Resources Inc. (SABRI).
In recent years, plant workers’ hours have suffered as a result of quota cuts in shrimp fishing Area 6.
In 2020, Clearwater Seafoods Ltd. made the decision not to open the plant at all.
According to Byrne, workers depended on government programs to get enough hours to become eligible for employment insurance (EI).
She said they got those hours this past October.
Preparations for 2021 season
In September, Quin-Sea Fisheries, a subsidiary of the Danish-owned Royal Greenland, acquired SABRI’s shares. They are looking to diversify the plant’s raw material.
Stedman Letto, the acting manager at St. Anthony Seafoods, told SaltWire equipment upgrades will allow the plant to process more species.
“Everyone knows with the shrimp quotas, you can’t survive on shrimp alone,” he commented. “You got to become multi-species and that’s our plan.”
The company is hoping to process more cod, pelagics, such as herring, mackerel and capelin, shellfish, such as shrimp, crab, and lobster and, according to Letto, “every species we can get our hands on.”
The inside of the plant has been painted and, in Letto’s words, given a “facelift” while outside the company is adding more lights to improve visibility at night.
Letto said the company’s goal is to ensure all employees get enough work to qualify for EI, with the 70 to 80 people on the seniority list their first priority.
Letto would not say when the company anticipates the plant will open but does hope, once it does, that it can remain open at least until the end of October.
Stephen Roberts is a reporter covering the west coast of Newfoundland.
