Fishermen's Protective Union - Origins and Purpose

Origins and Purpose

The FPU was founded on November 3, 1908 by William Coaker and nineteen men following a speech by him at the Orange Hall in Herring Neck as a cooperative movement for fishers on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. It was the first serious attempt to organize fishers as a political movement along class lines. With a rallying cry of "to each his own" the FPU sought to achieve reforms in Newfoundland society in order to attain an equitable distribution of wealth in the fishing industry.

At its peak, it had more than 21,000 members in 206 councils across the island; more than half of Newfoundland's fishers. The FPU set up the Fishermen's Union Trading Co. (UTC) which established stores throughout the province which would purchase fish from fishers for cash and would also import goods to sell to fishers directly at a non-inflated price, thus circumventing the St. John's fish merchants. Previously, merchants did not pay cash for fish but advanced fisherman staple goods at an inflated price on credit and then took took the fishers' cured fish at the end of the season at rate determined by the merchant - a system which kept most fishers in perpetual debt making him dependent on the merchant.