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محتوى الصفحة: Home > مجلة النقل الدولي "Transport International" > Issue 37 - October 2009 > Working Life: Master of Her Work
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Life on board a fishing trawler is not easy. Crews face tiring shifts and the threat of crashing waves as they haul their catch on board. Despite this, Ann Jorunn Olsen loves her work.
She became a fisher by chance. She comes from the north of Norway, where the sea and fishing play an important role in people’s daily life. More than 10 years ago, a summer job got her to work on a trawler, as a painter. She spent five days painting boats in the harbour in between trips. What was supposed to be a temporary job, while waiting for better things to come along, took a different turn. Those initial five days spread to a couple of months. Soon she got to know the crews and was convinced about working on board.
As she had no formal training as a fisher, she had to work her way up. She stayed on her first trawler for about 18 months before joining her present trawler, a 43-metre freezer-trawler. Both belong to the fleet of the major Norwegian fishing company, Aker Seafoods.
Ann Jorunn’s current role is factory boss/trawl master, which involves the operation of the trawl and the freezing of the catch. While the net gets dragged deep in the sea she attends to the processing of the fish until the next catch gets raised on board. In Norway, by-catch or high grading is not allowed. No part of the catch can be thrown away. Every fish is therefore sorted by size and species, gutted, cleaned and frozen on board. The frozen fish is then disembarked and sold by auction. Only two companies in Norway are allowed to regulate these auctions.
She is the only woman in a 15-person crew, including 10 fishers. The others are officers, engineers or cooks. In fact, very few women work as fishers in Norway, but she is quick to assure me that she has no problems with her male colleagues. They all have to work as a team and it is essential to be supportive of each other.
She joined her union, Norsk Sjømannsforbund, in 1998 and has seen quite an improvement in the working conditions during the last few years. Pay is fairly good in this line of work but the fishing duties used to be more erratic. Previously, she had to go on board for up to 22 days, with sometimes only a couple of days’ warning.
About five years ago, the union negotiated a much better arrangement. Now workers alternate one month on/one month off. This means that it’s now easier for her to plan her social life, but it also gives her more time to carry out her trade union work. The shifts on board alternate with six hours on duty followed by six hours of rest, mostly spent sleeping since the work can be pretty hard and dangerous.
The crew constantly wear lifejackets, helmets and protective shoes. If the conditions are particularly bad, they also wear survival suits. The operation of the trawl itself, with the various winches, cables and nets, can be particularly tricky. Luckily, so far she has not experienced serious accidents, just cuts and bruises.
Safety standards have very much improved over the years, thanks to a joint effort from the unions and employers. Ironically, accidents occur more frequently when the weather is good, probably because the crew relax and feel more remote from danger.
She is grateful for the support of her union. Wherever her trawler takes her in the Barents Sea, off the Shetland Islands or elsewhere, she knows that she can rely on them for help. She is also quite aware that a lot of fishers in the world do not enjoy these more favourable conditions. This is why international trade union solidarity is so important.
الصفحة الرئيسية للأقسام:
Issue 37 - October 2009
صفحات أخرى لـ Issue 37 - October 2009:
In this Issue | Indians lobby on criminalisation | Violence at Work | 60 Years of Service | American workers fight for union rights | Business as Usual? | Countdown to Copenhagen | Supporting Solidarity | Seafarers Against HIV/AIDS | Dockers Fight Financial Woes
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