And they will walk five hundred miles, and then five hundred more

Local shoreworkers took to the streets on Thursday to express their concern over the Employment Insurance regulations as they stand now. A system that they claim is unfair and in need of an overhaul as soon as possible.

With the fishing season not as bountiful as past years and the Northern Regions insurable hours required increased to 595 hours, a fair number of them will be looking for social assistance this year to make ends meet. Something they feel should not happen, instead a re-examination of the system should make EI available to locals who won’t find the necessary hours to top up their claims and qualify for the program.

Prince Rupert is lumped in with the more successful areas of the region in Fort St. John and Prince George, locations where the economy is percolating pretty well and the jobs are bountiful. At this time the same can’t be said for the North Coast and the protestors believe that special provisions need to be made for unique situations.

The Daily News featured coverage of the protest march on its Front page on Thursday.

PROTESTORS DEMAND ACTION OVER ‘UNFAIR’ EI RULE
Scores march through city calling for urgently needed overhaul of system
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Pages One and Two

To the shouts of “We Want Work” and “EI Not Welfare”, shoreworkers and supporters took to the streets yesterday to protest employment insurance rules that will force many onto social assistance.

“What we’ve set ourselves out to do is change the EI system, what we’ve set ourselves out to do is change the welfare system, what we’ve set ourselves out to do is to change the fishing industry licensing system so that we can have more jobs,” said Joy Thorkelson, United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU-CAW) northern representative and city councillor. “What we want is dignity – we’re calling this the dignity campaign because what we want is the dignity of work.”

The number of hours required to qualify for EI is based on a geographic region that compromises more successful economic areas, meaning more hours are needed to be worked before benefits can be collected. The North Coast is included in an area with Prince George - which is harvesting pine beetle wood at record rates and where employment is high – and Fort St. John, which is in the middle of an oil boom.

This means local shoreworkers require 595 hours to earn their benefits instead of the usual 420. Making the problem worse is a non-existent pink salmon run and record low processing numbers – only 209,122 48 pound cases of salmon have been canned this year compared to 479,715 last year.

“In talking to a lot of the older people in the industry and people that have retired they’ve never experienced a year like that, there’s absolutely no pinks,” said shoreworker Ellis Young. “We were expecting a lot but for some reason they didn’t show up and there’s been no explanation.”

Young, who has been processing fish for 30 years, wonders why the government can’t do what it does for farmers.

“They’ve been having a drought problem in the Interior there and the cattle industry has been greatly affected but they seem to have insurance through the government and they’re expecting major help,” he said.

“I don’t see why the fishing industry can’t have the same sort of thing from the government.”

“We’ve had some bad years, shoreworkers have suffered, fishermen have suffered, the whole industry has suffered and we’ve never been able to get any help,” said Young.

Coun. Kathy Bedard is heading to Ottawa to make just that case. But rather than asking for a hand out, Bedard will be advocating for equity in the EI rules by encouraging the government to adopt the 2005 report Restoring Financial Governance and Accessibility in the Employment Insurance Program.

Among the 28 recommendations are that 360 hours be sufficient to claim EI up to a maximum of 50 weeks anywhere in the country. A private members bill from the Bloc Quebecois endorsing the report has also been put forward.

“We want you to know that we think this is unfair,” Mayor Herb Pond told the rally while pledging the support of the city.

“We just think this is not right and when you believe you’re fighting for the right cause it energizes you.”

On the provincial front North Coast MLA Gary Coons added that the NDP would also continue to fight the province over some of the lowest welfare rates in the country.

The UFAWU is now asking those in the industry to write letters explaining the problem for Bedard and Coons to present to government.