BR Atl Seasonal Labour – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Feb 25, 2016

FREDERICTON – Some New Brunswick lobster plants were so short-staffed over the past year that thousands of pounds of lobster had to be thrown out.

New Brunswick Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet says he knows of one plant that had to discard about three-thousand pounds of lobster because they couldn’t find enough staff to process the crustaceans.

He say some plants are holding back on expansion plans because they lack workers.

New Brunswick has 44 active lobster processing facilities and had more than 700 million dollars in export sales of lobster last year, but some plants are already advertising for workers.

Doucet says he’s hoping the federal government will make more people available through the temporary foreign worker program to avoid future lobster losses.

However, Alex Furlong, regional director of the Canadian Labour Congress, says industries should step up their recruiting to get more Maritimers into those jobs.

He says enhanced wages and benefits would attract more workers to apply.

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ktb/mpt

(The Canadian Press)

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