Bonavista mayor nervous about FPI talks

The mayor of Bonavista is nervous about the status of ongoing contract talks between Fishery Products International and its unionized workers.

Betty Fitzgerald said if FPI succeeds in rolling back wages for its 2,000 workers, towns that depend on FPI plants will not survive.

St. John's-based FPI, which warned last year it could not survive much longer without changes to its labour agreements, has been negotiating a new agreement with the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union.

Because there has been little work at the plant this year, Fitzgerald says, Bonavista is losing population to areas such as Alberta.

"Yes, they have lots of oil and there's big wages up there [but] sooner or later, FPI won't have anyone to run their plants and I wonder if that's the plan to send everyone out to Alberta and have no one there so that plants can be shut down," Fitzgerald said.

Company and union officials have been quietly meeting in the last two weeks, following two failed attempts this spring and summer tostart negotiations.

John Risley, one of FPI's key directors, this summer described the proposed wage rollback as "realistic."

Fitzgerald said reduced wages could devastate rural communities.

"I don't believe in going back in time. I think if we [have] to do that, then our communities are going to die," she said.

"I think we should be going forward."

FPI is not commenting on the current round of negotiations