Bay de Verde fish plant workers displaced by fire start work in Brigus

Days after their longtime workplace in Bay De Verde burned to the ground, more than 80 people are already back at work in the Brigus fish plant, but they're not all happy.

The workers are being sent to Brigus as part of a plan by Quinlan Brothers to redistribute 350 workers from the Bay de Verde plant to other processing facilities, including Winterton, and Old Perlican.

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As the displaced workers prepared for their first shifts in Brigus on Wednesday, many were apprehensive about the new digs.

Janie Rose, who worked at the Bay de Verde plant for seven years, has mixed emotions about the move.

"We're not used to this, travelling all this way and looking around seeing our workers that went to Bay de Verde with us all the years," she said.

"Now we've got to come up here, got everything gone, even our minds."

Rose said that while she's happy to be back at work, it will take a while to adjust to her new surroundings.

"We're used to our own. We're used to our own plant, plus we used to know where to go, what to do and how to do it but up here I don't know," she said.

"I hope it works out for us."

Fewer hours, increased transportation costs

John Morgan was less optimistic.

He's been working at Quinlan Brothers in Bay de Verde for 38 years, and said the move will cause significant financial stress.

Morgan said that while the workers have been promised around three-to-four shifts a week, it won't be enough for many families to pay for their expenses.

"Anyone got a family, got house payments and car payments, I don't know how you're going to do it — no money," he said.

"We gonna be worse than ever."

According to Morgan, many workers at the Quinlan Brothers plant in Bay de Verde had been expecting to work 60 to 70 hours a week.

"You cut back to 30 [hours], that's half your income," he said. 

Morgan is also upset about the cost of travelling to the Brigus plant, which is 100 km away from the old plant in Bay de Verde.

"We need to pay some expense for gas, pay up the time we lost up to 40-something hours a week," he said. 

"How you going to live on 30 hours a week?"

He'd like to see the province step up and help the displaced workers make up some of their losses. 

"This government needs to smarten up and do something," said Morgan.