Tuesday 25 January 2022

Mowi's Fake Firing of its Staff


Here is the Fish Farming Expert's article on Mowi closing its packaging plant and laying off 80 people: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/80-jobs-go-as-bc-farm-closures-force-mowi-to-shut-processing-plant/?utm_source=netflex&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter__18_01_2022.

Here is my article published in the Times Colonist on Jan 22, 2022:

Re your article on Jan 18 about fish farming:

Mowi complains that moving fish farms from the Discovery Islands is devastating news for 80 staff at the processing plant it says it will close. There are a few things that should be said:

1. Mowi could open-up some on-land fish farms and thus have product for the processing plant and it would not have to fire staff. My list of on-land has 383 farms around the world. Putting fish farms on land is common, though Mowi doesn’t think of it.

2. What is required is retraining for its staff, who then could move into other areas of fish farming and not be fired. If Mowi won’t do it, and prefers to fire its staff, the government should start a retraining program. Simple and straightforward.

3. Mowi and the other mega companies view staff as replaceable. For example, Norway puts out ten times the salmon that are produced in Canada. They use 20% of the staff employed in Canada and have laid off the rest because of introduced efficiency measures. The scientific paper on this one was written by Inga Milewski and it is easy to find. Once the measures are brought to Canada, 80% of staff will be fired. So, no one needs to be blamed other than Mowi. After all, once it introduces the efficiency measures here, they could lay off 80% of BC staff and still have enough to produce salmon on par with Europe.

DC Reid