Snow crab transporters facing 'devastating' impact on business as harvester holdout continues
As snow crab harvesters in Newfoundland remain tied up in search of a better price for their catch, those who transport the product say they're hoping for a quick resolution.
Chris Robbins's family has been trucking crab in Lumsden since 1987, and says transporting the product is his main source of income. He said the impact of the holdout gets worse every day.
"Right now it's devastating to our business," Robbins told CBC News Tuesday.
"You know, 20 drivers, our seasonal drivers, are waiting to get back to work. We've had to lay off mechanics, office workers…. They're devastated right now. They don't know what to do."
Robbins says the holdout has also left their equipment, which he spent thousands of dollars to repair ahead of the season, stuck on their property. He said April and May are usually the busiest times of the year, but they've now shifted into survival mode.
The two groups at the centre of the holdout, the Association of Seafood Producers and the Fish, Food & Allied Workers union, appeared to have a deal on Friday to return to the water.
FFAW president Greg Pretty told CBC News on Friday that significant progress had been made on a deal, but the FFAW on Saturday said the deal was off.
Robbins said the shift has left his workers in a tricky position as the uncertainty continues.
"It's just a waiting game," he said. "They're waiting every day to see if they're going to get back to work or look elsewhere. They don't know what to do, and options are pretty limited."
David Chafe, owner of Forest Pond Trucking in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John's, estimates crab accounts for about half of his income.
He hasn't had to lay off any workers yet, and is hoping he won't have to.
"We've been waiting to go to work now for two months. Probably spent 50, 60 thousand [dollars] getting ready to go," he said.
"I've had them working now for the last five or six weeks, but I'm just finding things to keep them busy so we can go to work."
Chafe says he hasn't seen an interruption of this nature this late into the season before, but is optimistic a resolution will be reached so that the season isn't lost.
"I can't see it not happening. So it has to happen."
