The U.S. canned seafood giant, Bumble Bee Seafoods rescued its Fijian partner Pacific Fishing Company (PAFCO) Friday from a potentially disastrous industrial dispute with its 300 workers who had been on strike over a month.
â€Without the additional business and support we get from Bumble Bee, there is no way we would have met the cost of the settlement,’’ PAFCO chief executive officer Mitieli Baleivanualala claims.
PAFCO will now pay out FJD$2million annually in wages with a new hourly rate of $2.75 for unskilled workers and $3.50 hourly for skilled workers. It was the deal that saw the 300 workers return to work. It was better than an earlier industrial dispute award that would have cost the company an additional $7million annually which Baleivanualala said the company “simply could not afford.â€
The new deal includes an increased shift allowance rate making the workers one of the highest paid in the industry compared to Thailand, the Philippines, Ecuador and Mauritius. And according to Bumble Bee chief operating officer and company executive vice-president Doug Hines, the new rates make PAFCO workers one of the highest paid in any developing country.
â€It is a positive development. We now look forward to the future,’’ says a Hines statement. Company vice president resourcing and government affairs Mike McGowan accompanied Hines to resolve the eight-week strike which grabbed headlines when workers who went to a Senate meeting to hear a motion regarding their plight were forced to return to Ovalau Island, where PAFCO is based, without any result because the majority government senators voted for an adjournment.
PAFCO underwent significant overhaul and improvement in 2000 after Bumble Bee, North America’s largest canned Seafood Company, signed on as a strategic partner. Bumble Bee has a seven-year agreement with PAFCO for the processing of 30,000 tons of tuna loins a year.