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rfmcdonaldAngela Walker's CBC article "Displaced Bay de Verde workers offered support and jobs by P.E.I. Seafood Processors" caught a certain amount of attention on the web.
The noteworthy thing is that there is actually a labour shortages, with relatively few people willing to apply for physically demanding seasonal jobs which, as revealed by the Canadian government job bank, do not necessarily pay well. Angela Walker also described ("Campaign offers cash bonus to P.E.I. students to work in fish plants") how students are being targeted.
More on this theme later.
The P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association has reached out to the community of Bay de Verde, N.L., offering support and jobs for displaced fish plant workers.
A fire destroyed the fish plant in that community on Monday. It employed about 700 people.
Dennis King, executive director of the P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association, calls it a devastating loss to the community and to the people who relied on the fish plant for employment.
He said his heart goes out to them all and so he called the community council office, expressing his sadness about the news.
King said he also told them that there would be work for the upcoming season if some of the displaced plant employees were interested.
"Really I just let them know that we were thinking of them over here," said King. "I mean the fishing community is a pretty closely knit community throughout Atlantic Canada and I just wanted to convey the message that there would be some immediate opportunities for plant workers here in our processing facilities, if some of them were interested to go that route."
The noteworthy thing is that there is actually a labour shortages, with relatively few people willing to apply for physically demanding seasonal jobs which, as revealed by the Canadian government job bank, do not necessarily pay well. Angela Walker also described ("Campaign offers cash bonus to P.E.I. students to work in fish plants") how students are being targeted.
The P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association and Skills P.E.I. have launched a new marketing campaign — and a cash bonus — to encourage more high school and university students to work in Island seafood plants.
Students are invited to join Team Seafood.
If they take a seasonal job at a seafood plant, they will get a cash bonus at the end of the summer before they return to class.
P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association executive director Dennis King said high school students will receive a $500 bursary for their tuition and university students will receive $1,000.
"It's a payment to the student for looking toward the seafood processing facility for work," said King. "And it just really reflects the aggressive nature of the industry to try to do a better job of recruiting local workers to come to work in our seafood processing facilities.
"We feel Island-wide that this is a bit of an untapped market in terms of employees."
More on this theme later.
