Blacks Harbour Connors Brothers plant said to be cutting shift

Grand Manan Fishermen's Association calls for herring catch study

The community of Blacks Harbour learned Wednesday that the Connors Brothers plant will not be bringing back its second shift this month as expected.

The company has yet to comment, but workers from the sardine plant say they were told the "B" shift would not return the end of March.

The shift employs 200 staff who were expecting to go back to work.

There is talk at the plant of some workers from that shift being accommodated on the day shift, but no official word at this point on actual numbers from the company.

Connors Brothers used to be locally owned, but the chain of ownership now runs to Clover Leaf Foods of Toronto and then to Bumble Bee, a huge international, California-based company.

CBC News reached out to managers, human resources and communications people at all three of the organizations, but we are still waiting to hear back.