KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - Kodiak’s seafood processors are facing staff shortages as older employees reach retirement age and a younger generation is showing little interest in joining the workforce.
James Turner, plant manager at Ocean Beauty Seafoods, said that over the salmon season, they were roughly 100 employees short. The processor usually requires about 350-360 workers, but this summer they were down to roughly 230-240.
Though this didn’t inhibit the amount of fish that Ocean Beauty processed, it did affect the ways in which the fish was processed. According to Turner, the firm produced more frozen products than canned products this summer.
Turner said that an aging workforce is part of the issue, but it is compounded by the fact that the next generation isn’t following in its family’s footsteps.
“We have a lot of retirees moving out of the workforce, and a lot of the incoming age group is going to college,” said Turner. “It’s great that the community is sending most of its teens to college, but it used to be that the younger age group would automatically transition from high school into processing. That doesn’t happen so much now.”
Turner, who’s been working for Ocean Beauty Seafoods for five years and has been plant manager for four, said one of the roots of the problem is that the plant doesn’t have the budget for recruitment measures in the Lower 48. Whereas a young crowd of seasonal workers used to fill the processors during the summer, Turner said that’s becoming rarer.
“In the 80s, 90s, and early 200s, there used to be a big push for recruiting in the Lower 48,” he said, “but the cost in doing that has just grown out of realistic proportions.”
According to Turner, the majority of processors in town are posting job advertisements on sites like Monster and Craigslist in a bid for workers.
“There’s a lot of different factors in how we’re going to go about looking for those employees.
I’m sure every other plant is having these discussions right now,” he said. “Ocean Beauty doesn’t really want to import employees; we’d rather have local employees to support the economy here.”
According to Turner, one of the issues with bringing in foreign employees is that you have to provide housing. This, however, is now something that Ocean Beauty Seafoods is considering.
“We may have to buy some property and build, or do what Trident did a few years ago which is to buy a bunkhouse,” he said. “That’s a last resort.”
Daegi Shin, who’s been the administration manager at International Seafoods of Alaska for the past three years, told a similar story. According to Shin, ISA is facing an aging workforce and the processor was short of staff by 10 percent over the most recent season. Shin partially puts that down to a poor salmon take the previous season but explained that they too are having issues bringing workers up from the Lower 48. Often, he said, those applying from other states will request that the processor pay for their travel and accommodation, which ISA can’t afford to do.
Jesusa Nocon, who’s been the office manager at Global Seafoods North America since 2012, said that since she’s been at the firm, they, too, have started having similar issues.
“When I started working as an office manager, we didn’t have a struggle to find people,” she said. “And there are times when we are overflowing with people, but most of the time, we are struggling to find people.”
Nocon cited the transient nature of their staff as one issue, stating “we prefer locals,” but she also mentioned that the processor previously brought in staff under the J-1 visa program. She explained that they would have workers come from as far as Europe to work during the busy seasons. The J-1 visa program used to grant temporary visas to foreign students interested in working and traveling in the U.S. Alaska’s seafood processors, however, were removed from the program in 2012.
“That program really helped a lot of canneries before, especially our cannery because I think we are the smallest here in Kodiak,” she said.
Global Seafoods’ plant manager, Nikita Morozov, said they typically need 50-60 people to work each shift. Recently they’ve been as many as 20 employees short. Morozov said he spent over a year looking for a chief engineer and he’s also trying to find a foreman, a production manager, among other positions.
“We’re constantly understaffed,” he said. “We were so short that we had to have guys working multiple positions.”
According to Morozov, this can exhaust the staff, leading to inefficiencies which compound the problem. He also noted that if the minimum wage continues to increase it could be disastrous for the processor.
“You couldn’t pay people $15 and compete with fish prices from around the world,” he said.
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Information from: Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror, http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com
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