Company History

On November 24, 1978, approximately one hundred fishermen attended a meeting at Lance-au-Loup to form a Co-operative for the purpose of applying for two Shrimp licenses, which were reserved for Labrador at the request of Richard Cashin.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Cashin and the Fishermen elected a twelve member board to form the Labrador Fishermen's Union Producers Co-operative.

The application for two offshore Shrimp licenses was approved by the Honorable Romeo LeBlanc, Federal Fisheries Minister, in April 1979.

The Board of Directors of the Co-op had authorized Mr. Cashin and Mr. Kjell Hendrikson to negotiate on behalf of the Co-op. The first contract to fish Shrimp was with a group of companies from the Faroe Islands.

The first couple of years were very difficult for the Board of Directors. They didn't have the time that was required to get the Co-operative up and running, or the knowledge of the Shrimp fishery to be able to take care of fishing operations. So the Directors put their faith and trust into the hands of people like Richard Cashin, Kjell Hendrikson, Father Desmot McGrath, Claude Rumbolt, and Max Short.

These people looked after most of the affairs of the Co-op in close communication with the President, Frank Flynn, and other members of the Board of Directors.

In the first year of operations the Co-op did very well. A number of Labrador people acquired work on the Shrimp vessels and the Co-op made 3/4 million dollars with very little expenses.

At the First Annual Convention, which was held at St. John's in the Fall of 1979, the Board of Directors were reduced from a twelve member board to an eight member board. There were two areas defined with four members from each area. These areas included from Lanse-au-Clair to Red Bay and from Red Bay North to Paradise River.

There was a mandate put into place by the membership, that all of the profits made by the Co-op would be used to create jobs by developing the inshore fishery and fish plants.

In 1980 the Co-op operated a salt fish plant at Cartwright, Labrador, and in 1981 the Co-op bought a fresh fish operation from Northern Fisheries Ltd. which operated out of Lanse-au-Loup.

This company went bankrupt in 1980 and left a great number of plant workers and fishermen with worthless cheques. The Board of Directors of the Co-op and its members decided to use the profit from the Shrimp operation to take over this operation and pay off the plant workers, fishermen, and small businesses in the area that were owed money from Northern Fisheries Ltd..

In 1982, the Board of Directors and its members canceled its registration as a Co-operative and formed a company known as Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company Limited, but still maintained its concept of one share per fisherman, and all profits be kept in the company to develop and create employment along the Labrador Coast.

In 1984, the Bank of Montreal pulled out of Lanse-au-Loup, and the people from the area decided to set up their own Credit Union.

The Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company Limited helped and supported the new Credit Union by paying $13,000 towards the manager's wages for one year and investing $100,000 to get the Credit Union started. Today, the Eagle River Credit Union, with its main office in Lanse-au-Loup, has branches in both Mary's Harbour and Cartwright. It has proven to be a highly successful enterprise.

Over the past number of years, the Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company Limited has been involved in many different operations in many different communities. Some of those operations have failed, but a great number are still in operation, such as the crab plants at Cartwright and Mary's Harbour, as well as the Fresh Fish operations at Lanse-au-Loup, Lanse-au- Clair, and Forteau.

Today the Company has more than seven hundred shareholders, who are full-time bonafide fishermen from Labrador. The Company employs approximately seven hundred people along the Labrador Coast, both in the plants and on the Shrimp boats, and continues to seek new avenues to develop other communities and create more employment.