CRAB NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE: NO CRAB PROCESSED IN NL UNTIL FAIR PRICE

PROCESSORS TORPEDO CRAB TALKS AS PROVINCIAL REFORM FAILS TO CARVE CRAB POLICY AHEAD OF PANEL DEADLINE

Following the complete deterioration of good-faith negotiations, crab harvesters are saying there will be no crab processed in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador until a fair price is agreed upon.

Despite months of warnings and a clearly broken pricing system, the provincial government has not delivered the meaningful reform this industry needs. While the province did remove the formula requirement and postpone the Panel, further legislative changes continue to drag through bureaucratic and legal processes.

“Harvesters will remain resolute in their demand for basic fairness. There will be no crab processed in this province until that fairness is given,” says FFAW-Unifor President Dwan Street. “A price that reflects market realities is what we’re asking for. It’s not a big ask but it is seemingly beyond the pale for ASP and their member companies,” Street says.

“Companies are holding their own plant workers hostage by refusing to engage in a fair process and agree to a price that reflects what harvesters in other provinces are being paid. Their lowball offers and increasing greed is at the expense of all fishery workers in our province,” Street says.

FFAW COMMITTEE WALKS AWAY AFTER LOWBALL ASP OFFER

After more than 13 hours of failed negotiations yesterday, ASP’s last offer of $5.22 came in below last year’s final price of $5.25 and substantially under the prices FFAW put forward, despite an even stronger market than 2025. Every indicator, including Urner Barry and the market report from consultant John Sackton are indicating a higher market price this year compared to last.

The FFAW negotiating team also pressed for a stable price to be held for a number of weeks to ensure harvesters with later opening dates or those who may be delayed by ice conditions have a fair chance to fish, particularly given the ongoing frustration with how the Urner Barry index is used in pricing.

The Inshore Council, crab committee chairs, and the crab negotiating committee met this morning to discuss the mounting crisis.

“Harvesters will not accept a price that is worse than last year in a stronger market,” says Street.

“The fact that ASP is putting forward a price this low tells us they have zero interest in negotiating in good faith. ASP is doubling down on the same company cartel playbook; slowly stripping owner-operators of their share of the resource through prices that simply do not line up with market realities,” Street says.

PANEL PROCEEDS WITHOUT FFAW

FFAW has spent the past year working in good faith to move away from an arbitration system that has repeatedly failed to deliver fair, transparent prices for snow crab harvesters.

Those efforts included detailed legal work and concrete proposals to carve crab out of binding arbitration, targeted meetings with government on regulatory reform, and multiple attempts to negotiate directly with ASP on a system that would see prices fluctuate with the market and share risk more fairly over the season.

In the end, the Union did not appear before the Standing Fish Price-Setting Panel today and did not file a submission, allowing the hearing to proceed in protest with ASP presenting alone. Under provincial regulations, the Panel can either select ASP’s offer or set its own independent price.

“We said clearly from the beginning that we would not legitimize a process that locks in an unjust price for the entire province,” says Street.

PROCESSING PLANTS WILL NOT OPERATE IN NL UNTIL A FAIR PRICE IS SET

“As long as the price remains unacceptably low, there will be no crab processed in Newfoundland and Labrador plants,” says Street. “We will not allow ASP to continue dictating a price that has no basis in reality, and we will not allow our members to receive a lower share than they’re rightfully owed.” 

“Our communities depend on a sustainable, prosperous crab fishery, and that starts with a fair price for the people who catch the resource—not the lowest possible number demanded by a processor cartel that thinks it can starve harvesters into submission,” Street concludes.