Crew stuck as processor fails to pay

MONICA SOUTHWORTH

September 11, 2008 at 2:17PM AKST

Thirteen men aboard the salmon processing vessel New West owned by Great Land Seafoods are stuck in Dutch Harbor, unpaid with no way to get home.  

According to the processors, they are supposed to be paid every two weeks over a six-week period, and they have been promised paychecks since arriving in port Aug. 18.

“They kept pushing off paying us, saying it’s on the way, the bank screwed up and it was sent to the wrong account. Then they said the original investors pulled out, which we come to find they didn’t,” said Ed Ormiston, the lead on the boat. “And then when we docked here in Dutch Harbor they told us we all had to offload the product and that we wouldn’t get paid until it was processed.”

Daniel Newman, the quality control officer aboard the vessel, said that the company violated the contract by not paying them every two weeks.

“One of the supervisors had to use a credit card to send people home because college started, so he basically paid for their airline tickets,” Newman said. “It’s come to a head and it needs to stop.”

Over the course of six weeks, more than 400,000 pounds of salmon were processed. The remaining processors said that after the salmon was offloaded, the captain and a few others left the boat as soon as possible.

In an e-mail from the owner Steine Gudnason to quality control manager Newman, he encouraged the captain to work as quickly as possible, and “to fill the tramper with purchased fish, if we cannot find this, this whole thing might become a disaster, please help me out here.”

Ormiston is helping the other crew members to file a claim with the Alaska Department of Labor, but some may not even get the lost wages. Four of the crew are from Turkmenistan and go to school in Ukraine, and one is from the Philippines.

“I don’t blame this company, I know it is too complicated, but nobody cares about us,” said Azim Annamuradov. “We’re working 24 hours a day, working downstairs in the freezer, working everywhere they wanted us to. We’ve been waiting for our checks for six weeks, and it’s not even enough to pay our studies.”

Ormiston also said the fisherman who sold the fish to the processing vessel in Naknek and False Pass has still not received pay from the company. He knows this because they continually call the vessel looking for pay and he answers the phones.

“I’m just working without pay, this is the first time in my life to work without pay. I said this is the United States, nobody works without pay,” said Martin Suwer, one of the processors.

When contacted by a reporter, the employer at Great Land Seafoods said that there was already a paycheck sent, and there was a second one on the way to be delivered to the processors.

The processors said they have been hearing the same thing for the past six weeks.

Newman was hired to ensure that the fish are safe for distribution and meet the quality standard that is promised by the processor. Newman said the vessel was processing for a minimum of two weeks before he arrived without a quality control officer, which is federally mandated.

The men on the boat were told they would be returned to the city of hire, which was either Seattle or Anchorage, but none live in those cities. Because they do not have money, they are unable to purchase tickets to fly to their homes.

Grey Mitchell, director of the labor standards and safety division of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said that there had so far been one wage claim filed against Great Land Seafood in Unalaska on Aug. 27.  He said there have been five claims filed agaainst the company in the past, from locations throughout the state. The state is still investigating the Aug. 27 claim and has received no response from the employer as of Sept. 9.

Mitchell said that this may be because workers may choose to wait it out or seek legal council, and that “some workers may not know that they can file with the state.”

Mitchell encouraged workers regardless of their nationality who are seeking lost wages from Great Land Seafood or any other company to contact the state of Alaska Wage and Hour Administration at 907- 269-4900 or fill out a wage claim form at http://labor.state.ak.us/lss/whhome.htm.­­