MARYSTOWN, N.L.
Members of the Marine Workers Federation-Unifor (MWF-Unifor) Local 20 voted to accept the collective agreement from Marbase Marystown Inc. on Friday, Nov. 23.
Marbase is a partnership between Newfoundland businessman Paul Antle and Amar Group AS, a Norwegian company. They reached a tentative agreement with the Town of Marystown earlier this month to lease the former Marystown Shipyard for use as a service hub for the aquaculture industry.
Union president Rick Farrell said members are happy with revisions made to the proposed collective agreement.
“If there’s any shipbuilding or ship construction down at the site in the future with Marbase, besides it being an aquaculture hub, we have language in the contract that will speak for that,” Farrell told The Southern Gazette on Monday, Nov. 26. “Even if there is any hint of it at all if any non-aquaculture based ship repair or ship construction we’ve got language in the contract now that will certainly be beneficial to the membership going forward.”
Members of the MWF-Unifor Local 20 voted to reject the initial contract proposed to them by Marbase.
Farrell said there were other changes made to the contract as well, but the revision to the language around future shipbuilding was the most significant one.
He added that he would like to give credit to the negotiating committee.
“They did a great job throughout the whole process,” he said.
