The seafood industry in Atlantic Canada has an ongoing problem and it has nothing to do with quotas or fish prices.
The issue of course is lack of workers and unfortunately for processors around the region, this problem is showing no signs of getting better. And if you listen to some stakeholders, it is only going to continue to get worse before it gets better. So, how do you start to make it better?
A few years ago, The Navigator highlighted a 2019 study by Food Processing Skills Canada that outlined this very seafood processing worker shortage issue.
The study outlined what we unfortunately already knew.
“In many regions, there are just too few people to meet the local employment requirements overall. It is estimated that the Atlantic fish and seafood industry will require 7,500 workers over the 2018 to 2030 period or roughly 600 workers on average per year to fill ongoing vacancies, replace retirements and work to address high turnover rates. This equates to approximately 50 per cent of the current average workforce of 15,000 (2017). Unfortunately, as processors try to grow, increase productivity and remain competitive, recruitment will occur within very tight regional labour markets, which already experience labour shortages during peak seasons; shortages that are predicted to continue into the foreseeable future,” the study stated.
The study made a number of recommendations to seafood processors in how to entice new workers, at the same time as retaining the employees they already have. These included:
- Improving awareness of the industry by holding open houses and plant tours.
- Offering shorter shifts and managing workloads to give workers guaranteed days off.
- Assisting with transportation and housing needs.
- Recognizing experience and seniority.
- Rewarding referrals from current employees and adapting schedules to meet EI (employment insurance) requirements.
- More involvement/partnerships with community agencies.
- Sharing local labour supply with other area seasonal employers.
- Developing closer ties with educational institutions — integrating work placements.
- Growing partnerships between Indigenous peoples in processing and harvesting.
- Recruiting youth through government/industry partnerships in summer.
- Welcoming temporary foreign workers by providing housing/transportation and in assisting in becoming permanent residents.
- Using technology to reduce labour requirements and prolong retirement of an aging workforce.
These were all good suggestions and some appeared to be working, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, government funding was prevalent and we all know what happened after that. Fast forward to the present and the seafood processing worker shortages only appear to be getting worse.
As you can imagine, Atlantic Canada is not the only location suffering through worker shortages — it is happening right across North America.
The U.S. supermarket industry is another area that witnessed major employee losses. Since 2020 and the onset of the pandemic, it has suffered severe worker shortage of workers as people left the workforce in record numbers. Employees quit because they were worried about contracting COVID-19, or received government incentives, or they switched industries seeking better working conditions or pay.
Sound familiar?
So, what is the multi-billion-dollar U.S. supermarket industry doing to fill its vacancies? It is tapping a new pool of workers — their own former employees.
According to media reports, Kroger Co., the largest U.S. supermarket operator, is staying in touch with ex-employees and bringing some back. Cereal maker General Mills Inc. has persuaded some retirees to return to plant jobs and other food-company recruiters have combed social media for former workers who might be open to coming back.
Kroger said it has seen a significant increase in the number of former employees of various demographics returning to the company — so-called boomerangs as they are known — and people are typically coming back within six months of leaving.
To boost employment, some similar companies have raised hourly wages, offered bonuses, hired temporary workers and introduced flexible shifts.
Retirees are a major target because they slide right into a job they have done before and it helps cut back on training time. Many are doing it because, given the current rate of inflation, they can earn a good wage while still drawing a pension.
At Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., one of the biggest U.S. grocery wholesalers, recruiters are having luck contacting former employees via LinkedIn and Facebook.
Are revisiting former workers the answer to the processing employment shortfalls here in Atlantic Canada? It will probably help, but alone, it will probably not be able to fill all of the open positions.
What about more temporary foreign workers?
For a while, it was thought that bringing in temporary foreign workers would be an employment panacea for the fish processing industry in Atlantic Canada. And nobody will argue that the presence of these workers has certainly helped the situation.
Perhaps now, the next obvious step is to facilitate programs encouraging these workers to immigrate here for good and bring their families? All four Atlantic Canadian provincial governments of late seem to be tripping over themselves trying to attract immigrants to their prospective provinces in an attempt to combat population decline.
But immigration alone is not going to fill the many fish plant worker vacancies. So, what is the solution?
It is safe to say that there is a single, simple answer to this employment problem.
But commercial fishing industry stakeholders have always been innovative and collaborative in overcoming challenges, and innovation and working together are certainly going to be needed to overcome this challenge — that combined with a bit of good luck.
