It’s been just a year since Dwan Street has been at the helm of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Fish, Food, Allied Workers’ Union (FFAW-Unifor).
Elected to the position of president on July 24, 2024 by the membership, she was sworn in in November, 2024 for a three-year term.
“Last year’s election was the first time the position of president had been challenged for a full membership election, a full-blown election. There were three of us running at the time. It was a pretty robust campaign,” recalled Street in an interview.
“I had been working with the organization at that point for almost 10 years in various capacities. I grew up in a fishing family. My father was a fish harvester. My mother worked in a processing plant for 27 years, so I grew up hearing a lot of issues, whether it was within the industry or within the union, and my whole career what kind of bothered me was I was hearing the same issues, the same concerns that I heard growing up many years later. Looking at the changing face of industry over the years, there was definitely an opportunity for change, for some new ideas. I had some ideas I wanted to move forward and I think folks appreciated that,” said Street.
“I think over the last year with the new executive board because interestingly enough all the seats that were challenged on the executive board (in the election) actually flipped so we’ve had a lot of new folks come on board. We’ve all been working together over the last year. We did some new staff hires in the office and the team we have here now is absolutely phenomenal,” said Street.
“I don’t know where the year went. It’s been a whirlwind. I think it’s been a good year if anything overall. It’s been one of the most positive years. Just negotiations this year has been one of the best records I can remember. We have some staff with skill sets that have never been here. We hired a new market analyst and he’s absolutely brilliant, a wizard with numbers. We’re filling those gaps and creating a team that is needed to work in all aspects of the industry because where the fishery is so complex now. We’ve got scientists, membership representatives. It’s been a good year building that team, building capacity and everyone seems to be hard on that focus,” said Street.
“This year pricing for snow crab, for the first time we have a formula in place that has a framework in place that we can work with,” said Street. “Unfortunately, we had some market manipulation. We were able to cull that out. And some underhanded efforts to ship crab out. We caught that and were able to bring it to the provincial government’s attention and get them on board and since it has steadily improved. A lot of that has come to a halt.”
Street said some of the gains made this year, even though they were big ones, are regarded as baby steps. “There’s still so much work that needs to be done.”
With the Northern cod quota more than doubled for N.L. harvesters, there are issues in the province for processing capacity, so the FFAW is going to work to improve that, said Street.
“Lobsters, we have some issues when it comes to lobster storage, with what it costs, how to set the best price on the market, so we are working with the provincial government on issues like that. DFO on mackerel, that’s an issue that’s definitely coming up and we really haven’t gotten anywhere. We’ve got the minister’s ear on that one. We’ve worked really hard to establish a good working relationship” with the newly minted federal fisheries minister, St. John’s East MP Joanne Thompson, said Street.
“Since she stepped into that role, the conversations we’ve been having has been much different and the atmosphere in Ottawa is much different towards the fishing industry and the willingness to work with harvesters and the ones on the wharf when it comes to making decisions. When it comes to mackerel and capelin issues, in the Gulf there has been significant struggles. We feel what is appropriate now is maintaining a relationship with the federal government and actually getting some really great work done because that relationship hasn’t been great for a long time. We have a minister from this province who is willing to listen. It has been good so far,” said Street.
“I like to think in my work that over the years I’ve made some really good working relationships with folks and that really makes a big difference. It’s a combination of things. Having some progressive ideas and listening. There are always folks coming forward with some different really good ideas on how things could be working and I don’t think over the years there’s been really an effective channel to do that. There are folks here that have done some great work, wonderful work over the years, but it was time for changes and new ideas. Hopefully going forward I can serve the membership well.”
