This morning dozens of workers of the National Fishermen's Cooperative were unable to determine their employment status with the cooperative after they were put on suspension indefinitely. It began on Thursday when the over thirty workers who process the Cooperative's Fisheries products were asked to leave their job site. The reason given at the time was that management was trying to ascertain who was responsible for trying to sneak out some 70 pounds of lobster tails that were stashed away in the bathroom. That was last week and today it continued with workers milling around outside the cooperative's offices waiting for answers. We caught up with them there.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
32 workers of the National Fishermen's Cooperative this morning stood and sat outside the cooperative's offices this morning and they say uncertain of their future with their employer. The workers say that on Thursday they were unceremoniously asked to leave their workplace and not return until a matter over stolen seafood namely lobster is settled. Since then the workers have been outside not knowing what is going on. They say having all of them out on the street for a few who steal the cooperatives products is simply unfair.
Sharon, National Fishermen Co-op Employee
“That’s not fair. How will you look at everyone at one time and when and everyone has something to do? Everyone has a corner they need to take care of. Everyone is walking up and down looking at us like we are thieves. We are not thieves. It is their duty to find out who are the thieves if they know it is a group of persons.”
Alfonso Noble,
What if it is one of you in here?
Sharon,
“I have no idea.”
Alfonso Noble,
But what if say for example it is you who is taking the product?
Sharon,
“If it is me taking the product then it is them I give the duty to find out who is taking the product. We are not thieves and now we want to know if we have a job or we don’t have a job. That is what we want to know. Everyday we come out here and nobody comes and talk to us and then we find out we are on suspension.”
“People are stealing stuff from them then why blame us when we are in there working? We are always in there working and when they found out about the theft we were working.”
For Oldine Gutoy who's been with the cooperative for 11 years the treatment that workers, and herself in particular is receiving is disheartening and downright disrespectful because she says she's no thief.
Oldine Gutoy, National Fishermen Co-op Employee
“After 11 years they will tell me I am a thief and I am no thief. So many years they are telling us shut up your mouth, you can’t do this and you can’t do that and now after this they will kick us in our butt.”
Now they only thing they could do is wait to find out their future with the cooperative.
Sharon,
“We want to know if we have a job or we don’t have a job. That is all we want to know, that’s all.”
Oldine Gutoy,
“I am waiting for them to tell me if I have a job or not. If all of us don’t get back our jobs then no one will go in and work. Nobody. This is not time to hire half of us and fire the next half so if all of us don’t have our jobs then no one will go in.”
That was short lived however as after a few moments the Cooperative's Chairman Charles Heusner came out spoke to the workers and shortly after they went in to meet in the hopes of an amicable solution to this dispute.
This morning we spoke to the Cooperative's Committee representatives who told us that the loses as a result of theft have been mounting over the past few months and it is simply unsustainable to keep taking on losses that is representing about 1.5% of the product brought into the cooperative. While they told us this we were unable to ascertain the results of this morning's meetings as no one from the cooperative's management was available this evening.