Strings attached to pending FPI sale: Rideout

The Newfoundland and Labrador government wants to receive more assurances about the future of the province's flagship seafood company before it approves a pending sale, Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout says.

FPI has announced tentative agreements with Ocean Choice International and High Liner Foods to sell the company's Newfoundland-based assets, particularly its plants and trawlers.

Rideout said the government— which has oversight of FPI, a former Crown corporation, through the FPI Act— will seek operational plans for the next three to five years from the purchasing companies, including forecasts of employment at FPI's seven operations.

"This government and the ministers in this government, and this premier, will ask every question," Rideout told the legislature Monday. "We will explore every possibility. We will leave no stone unturned. We will not leave one'i' undotted."

Under the terms of the FPI Act, the St. John's-based company cannot sell major assets without government approval.

The sale, if successful, would likely require the repeal or amendment of the FPI Act. Rideout said the government will now step into the final phase of the negotiations.

One of the provincial government's key conditions is that FPI's groundfish quotas revert to the province, rather than to the purchasing company.

The federal government, which controls quotas and harvesting within the fishing industry, would need to grant its approval, and although such a transfer has been negotiated in the past, federal sources say the current administration is not warm to the concept.

Rideout said Ocean Choice is agreeable to that demand. Ocean Choice, owned by the St. John's-based Penney Group, is also seeking to retain FPI's lucrative offshore shrimp and scallop quotas.

Province not in strong position: Reid

Opposition leader Gerry Reid has his doubts about the strength of the Newfoundland and Labrador government's bargaining position.

"If these groundfish quotas were so important, then why hasn't FPI harvested these quotas in the past year and a half?" said Reid, referring to the fact that many of FPI's plant workers have been idle during an extended confrontation with its unionized workforce.

Reid said the government should have insisted on attaining the shellfish quotas as well.

"If [the groundfish quotas are] all we have to hold over the new owners, to make sure they honour their commitments to the people, then we don't have very much," he said.

Rideout said the Liberals will have an opportunity to question the negotiations as they proceed.

Strike put off, for now

About 1,700 plant workers, represented by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union, were poised to strike Monday, after narrowly rejecting a concessionary package that would have cut most wages by $1.06 per hour.

News of the tentative agreement— which would see High Liner pick up the value-added plant in Burin, as well as FPI's profitable U.S. marketing division, while Ocean Choice would purchase five other plants and an additional facility— was enough to put a strike on ice, at least for now.

Workers at the Burin, Bonavista and Port au Choix plants, which had been scheduled to process seafood this week, have agreed to stay on the line as negotiations on the pending sale continue.

Barry Randall, an employee at the plant in Bonavista, said he and his colleagues are optimistic, despite the uncertainty about what lies ahead.

"I think it's important to give the new company a chance, and see what happens," Randall said.

Bonavista plant worker Tony Fleming said workers remain cautious.

"They're not sure what they are getting themselves into with a new company, so hopefully things will work out and better than they were," he said.