Emergency action needed if you oppose catch shares

[sokinwet]

I will try and put some info. up after work JD. I don't normally like to "cut & paste" so there may be a little editorializing. Hopefully Mako Mike will check back in too; he is better informed on this issue than most. (He beat me to it..must be a fast typer)

Here's an analogy taking fish out of the equation to provoke a little critical thinking.

Imagine if the Environ.Defense Fund (EDF) was fighting air pollution caused by diesel engines and was targetting a reduction in the truck fleet to reduce that pollution...with the added "benefit" of providing a more consistent income for those truckers who survive the purge by joining a cooperative "sector". Now the head of EDF becomes head of Dept. of Commerce and decides to promote that NGO agenda as new goverment policy to reduce air pollution and "help" truckers earn a decent living. Commerce decides that these sectors can "buy" a share of total shipping volume based on their past "history"...so all the big truckers...who may well have been the ones causing the most pollution.... get all the business and the small guy who can't afford to buy into a sector gets put on the unemployment line. It's the same amount of goods being shipped, same # of trips contributing to the pollution...only difference is now the small trucker is out and the wealth is being consolidated into the hands of a chosen few. Now.... A little investigating finds out that EDF had previously been promoting their truck sectors to hedge fund investors as a way to increase their "investment" in sectors by 4X.....and had been telling these same investors that "the way is being paved" for these changes by the government. Low & behold...their (wo)man is now in charge and shoving the new game down everyones throat. So now we have a few conglomerates and some Wall Street investors...who probably drive a Lexus, not a truck, are controlling the industry. Who is making that 4X the investment profit....not the trucker....who will be paying that 4X profit? You.
Could never happen in this country right! Not to the teamsters ...because if it was there would be bodies showing up under bridges....but it's happening to fisherman right now.