The morning crew at the Goodnews Bay plant. CVRF photo
Now here's something Deckboss has never seen before — a processor bragging about what it pays workers on the slime line.Coastal Villages Region Fund says it's bumping up beginner pay to $10 an hour, "believed to be the highest starting wage for processors in the history of the Alaska seafood industry."
The company's flagship plant is the Goodnews Bay regional facility near the village of Platinum.
Processing hands are an essential, but often overlooked, component of Alaska's commercial fishing industry.
Many come from out of state, and ethnic minorities are predominant.
The work is monotonous and messy. Workers stand for hours in wet, noisy conditions heading, gutting, cleaning and packing fish.
Coastal's starting pay rate does appear favorable compared to other processors in the state.
Icicle Seafoods, one of the state's biggest seafood processors, pays $7.75 an hour to start, which is the minimum wage in Alaska.
Because seafood processing is so labor intensive, companies have a strong incentive to control payroll costs.
In 2009, they lobbied against a state minimum wage hike.
Coastal Villages suggests it is different from other processors. And it is.
It's a nonprofit company operating under the federal Community Development Quota program. The goal of the program is to improve economic conditions in Western Alaska villages.
Coastal says better than 80 percent of its processing hands are Alaskans, including village residents.
The company acknowledges it actually loses money on its salmon, halibut and herring operations in Western Alaska.
Coastal subsidizes those operations with the lucrative income stream from its Bering Sea pollock, cod and crab harvests.
Holy Cow. An honest CDQ program.
ReplyDeleteRare.
Working on the slime line for $10/hour is peanuts compared to what the CDQ is paying their administrators. The CDQ money actually belongs to the stakeholders of Western Alaska but in this case, they are the peons.
BFD!
ReplyDeleteI got $7.50 an hour butchering king crab thirty years ago. Guess what gas cost then? How about a gallon of milk.
This is awesome awesome awesome
ReplyDeleteLet the truth set you free.
Despite receiving less CDQ fish per person they are doing more than the other groups combined (I saw their 20th anniversary presentation) in bringing actual jobs and benefits to people.
Some people think BS is the truth just because someone said it.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of jobs is Coastal bringing? Seasonal sliming in a business losing money. But never mind, it's someone elses money so it can be wasted. What kind of business reasoning is that?
And your alternative is to waste money on private jets that trident and American seafoods each have? Would you rather spend the profits in Seattle and Japan? Are you a non-Alaskan?
ReplyDeleteTrue economic development has no borders, especially interstate borders. Why the "racism" for residency requirement?
ReplyDeleteYou can do a lot of things when you're gifted a piece of the Bering Sea crab, pollock, and halibut fisheries. Tax-free of course! It allows you to turn around and lose money on another enterprise and not worry about it. Is this country great, or what!
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, they forgot to tell the webmaster.
ReplyDeleteCoastal Villages Seafoods, LLC
CVS proudly provides opportunities for region residents to fish and work. The Employment Program will begin recruiting for processing positions in February but accepts applications year round for those who want to work for your employer of choice. CVS will continue to offer starting wages at $9.00 an hour with a $13.50 per hour overtime rate. We retain good employees by offering the following benefits: 1) Room and board. 2) Paid transportation with a complete contract. 3) A $BONUS to those who complete their contract. 4) Great summer work experience.
Que onda guerro!!!! Estoy applicando!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like it pays better than the factory longliners...
ReplyDeleteNot bad, but that's what Morgan makes that in about 3 minutes. Not counting bonuses.
ReplyDeleteBlogger 4/8 @ 7:16 AM is comparing rich people to poor people. There is no comparison and there never will be so get off that horse because it's not going anywhere.
ReplyDeleteBut, it's okay for one of theirs to become a millionaire on money that rightfully belongs to them.
Double standards based on Racial Superiority with an attitude of Entitlement based on Race is pure unadulterated Racism. No wonder you don't fit in very well. Not all Alaskans are living with hate in their hearts.
It's great to have work in the summer for those just becoming of age. It's not great to be stuck in the Slimer role for the rest of one's life.
ReplyDeleteEconomic Development anyone?
Under which line is the FREE 'Room and Board' expense hidden after it's taken out of the wages?
ReplyDeleteDouble standards
Double dipping
Double personalities
Based on who you
Interact with
Above the Law
And for how long
Is the question
This whole concept of Board of Directors for Corporations guiding the destiny of a race of people is so out of touch with reality.
ReplyDeleteMillions and millions of dollars tied up in corporate mumbo-jumbo with a few hands on the bag strings makes for a hellava lot of money intended for the poor to disappear in the blink of an eye.
What it all amounts to is a handful of men slapping each other on the backs for keeping most of the money to themselves.
In the meantime, life in the villages is worst than it ever was before. And, people are happy for a summer job handling fish that should go into smokehouses and freezers instead of becoming a net operating loss for a free money monopoly.
Free money monopoly
Giving
Poor People
A false sense
Of HOPE
For the future
@ 7:14 you are completely right about APICDA. They are stockpiling their money which they have too much of. They have adopted a non-CDQ community for their low resident count rate. They have one of the highest G&A rates. They pay their dude 425,000 to serve a handful of people. They have two non-resident board members.
ReplyDeleteCDQs became so powerful that they can make up their own rules.
ReplyDelete"So powerfull?" Seriously? They are only allocated 10.7 % of the pollock Total Allowable Catch... What about the other 90% that was given to the non-Alaskans who fish for pollock? How powerfull are they?
ReplyDeleteBoo hoo to 7:14. It isn't a false sense of hope you fool. We have people who want to work or fish to earn money rather sit on our bums and ask the government for free money in the form of TANF, LIHEAP, HIP, Food Stamps. Those forms of income provide a false sense of hope you dumby. I'd rather earn my due then rely on your lack of wits for money.
ReplyDelete@ $10 an hour I'd work for $80/8 hours; $400/40 hours, and that's before taxes.
ReplyDeleteThe taxes that pay for those welfare programs - TANF, LIHEAP, HIP, Food Stamps, more not listed.
I'm a taxpayer. I'm a citizen of the United States of America. Resident of Alaska.
Ten Dollars doesn't last long and it doesn't buy much these days.
Salmon commercial fishing seasons in Western Alaska last about two weeks, and depending on the run and the weather, a fisher might get at least 4-6 openings. A Slimer could work about 50 hours a week; 100 hours in a two week period so it's about two thousand dollars to live on for a year.
Boo hoo to you for not using your voice to direct your CDQ to STOP killing off your salmon in the sea so you can slime more salmon and make more money.
That is the only source of income for many in western ak. We rely on CVRF to bring more jobs to as the main source of income. Way to go CVRF. You have my support.
ReplyDeleteIf sliming fish for $10/hour is the only source of income for many in western ak., then what do you call the millions and millions of dollars that are coming into the region through the native corporations including their non-profit arms? It's a source of income for a handful. The CDQs have turned into a source of income for a handful while their hands are pointing to the future for the rest of the jobless people.
ReplyDeleteNative corps provide dividends for just being a shareholder. Your logic is skewed. More than a quarter of a billion dollars have been spent in the region, a lot of that invested in infrastructure. More jobs to come and more benefits. This is only the beginning.
ReplyDeleteJust Fix CDQ
ReplyDeleteIt's okay to be optimistic but in this case it's better to be realistic - economic development for Western Alaska has been taking a long, long time to materialize and it's taken buckets of millions of taxpayers dollars as well.
ReplyDeleteIt'll always be the "beginning." unless business practices are changed. It'll always be the "beginning." until the people start demanding accountability and transparency from those people operating with millions of dollars on the peoples behalf.
This is not the "beginning." for the pollock fishery. It has brought the end to commercial and subsistence fishing for King Salmon in Western Alaska. I guess you could say it's a "beginning." of some sort, the beginning of the end.
"shareholder dividends" and "a quarter of a billion dollars". Sounds so cushy alright.
ReplyDeleteI'll use my next shareholder dividend to help pay for my fuel bill. It'll only cover about 4.4% of the total bill.
Rolling in shareholder dividends - NOT!
Icicle is abandoning their "infrastructure" in Adak. Sound business move - can't make any money when your business isn't making it.
ReplyDeleteThe people of Western Alaska are very, very rich because they own all the investments that the CDQ program has made in the past 21 years.
That "infrastructure" will not remain in operation unless the King Salmon problem is fixed. It'll soon be getting to the point where we'll have to let humpies, and chums go just to help the last King Salmon survive to spawn. Endangered Species procedures requires that protection.
Yet, the millions paid out to bring "infrastructure" will still have to pay interest on their loans even though no money is coming in. No money = shut down.
Infrastructure then becomes useless.
Go Coastal Villages! Bring the money home to Alaska!
ReplyDeleteYeah, $10/hr at a time for seasonal work. That's bringing "the money home to Alaska!"??????
ReplyDeleteIt's home already and has been for 21 years.
Brainwashing people to believe BS is meanspirited.
@ 6:41 you are a lost cause
ReplyDeleteA cause is never "lost" even if there is just one person pointing out the injustice being done to people through racial hatred and manipulation of their ignorance and illiteracy.
ReplyDeleteEvil anywhere needs to be challenged.
The Salmon Culture of Western Alaska will survive if the CDQ program is made to pay the people not to fish for salmon except for food. There is enough money in the CDQ pot to do just that. Demand that they stop spending the money out in the sea because in the end they'll be hold the bag and all will come to naught.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear as a bell to me.
You're pointing to the cleanest sector. Catcher boats catch the most pollock and the most bycatch. Why do you think the NPFMC gave them more bycatch to scoop up than factory trawlers. If the council wanted to reduce bycatch, they would give the cleaner fishers a pro-rata share.
ReplyDeletePaying someone not to do something is the same as food stamps and all those social benefits. I'd rather earn my keep then sit on my ass and cry foul like a child.
ReplyDeletePaying someone not to kill off the resource is 100% better than to continue down this distructive path. As it is now, they are killing off the resource for a pittance without regard to those who use the resource for cultural and traditional food.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Oh Yes!, Great!, the latest on the Kusko is that the Escapement Goals will be lower because there are more Kings out there according to some hoo-doo model that was kept from the public eye for years.
Lowering the Escapement Goals is like copping out. Next year, the goals will have to be lowered, then again, and again, and again, until the brood stock is floundering on the brink of Endangerment.
Those EXTRA King Salmon for Subsistence Use are in reality not really EXTRA Kings.
It's a crime against humanity for evil people to manipulate a society lacking in knowledge. That is what is happening in Western Alaska with the decline in the salmon returning to the rivers to spawn.
ReplyDeleteApparently you can't read an EIS for crap. Too lazy to see that there is more to the decline than you know. Lazy bums point to others.
ReplyDeleteThe EIS is written for those in the know. It's not "lazy" to try to make sense of something not written for the general public.
ReplyDeleteThe information keepers are the "Lazy bums" because they don't know how to summarize the information for the people who own the resource in the first place.
Uhm, nice logic there.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going on to the ignorant and illiterate people of Western Alaska is not "nice". The wool will be kept over their eyes for as long as possible. In the meantime, millions will continue to line individual pockets.
ReplyDeleteIt's a peon system as clear as a bell.