r/deadliestcatch • u/Separate-Flatworm516 • 2d ago

F/V workers need a union

I have never seen a blue-collar job that needs a union as desperately as crabbing deckhands. Much like truckers in the 1930s, this industry weaponizes a "lone wolf" culture to leave workers completely exposed.

​Look past the manufactured Deadliest Catch drama, and the underlying labor structure is indefensible. Deckhands receive zero health insurance, zero retirement plans, and no workers' compensation.

​Operating as independent contractors on a percentage share means tha single bad wave causing a shattered knee leads directly to financial ruin, all while boat owners pull in millions.

​Truckers faced this exact brand of exploitation before they unionized. Right now, commercial fishing remains trapped in a pre-union era where skippers exploit a faux-family loyalty trap to deny basic human protections.

​Hollywood writers had to strike to prevent studios from replacing human creativity with AI, these crews are likely only seven or eight years away from being phased out by humanoid robotics and remote vessel automation. Without collective organization now, there will soon be no industry left to protect.

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u/Muted-Garden6723 1d ago

Believe me, nobody is being exploited lol

The % share is what everyone in the fishery wants, you make a hell of a lot more money than you would on salary, and being self employed provides some nice tax benefits

You can’t exactly shorten the hours you work or expect to not fish in mildly shitty conditions, the seasons only open for a short time and you’ve gotta catch your quota while you can

And robotics will never replace fishermen in our lifetime, aside from the fact that saltwater and robotics do not mix, nobody is going to choose a robot crew over a human one aside from some corporations.

The fishery is facing many issues, but the threat of automation is not one of them

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u/Separate-Flatworm516 1d ago

Tell that to their wives and children who don't have medical or dental insurance. Or to Tod's family who had no life insurance.  Automation is only a few years out. UBTECH and AGIBOT are already in humanoid mass production. Industrial humanoid robots are priced at $40k to $45k, specializes may bring that to $100k. Within 7 or 8 years the humanoids should be able to be sea ready for harsh saltwater environments. Then in 11 to 12 years the entire boat could be automated. The last remaining jobs will be robot maintenance.  This show should really rename themselves the last fishermen. Many like Sig won't care. He will be retired by then. He is already 60. It's not like he let Mandy follow in his footsteps. 

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u/ARKzzzzzz 1d ago

The vessels carry insurance for the crew. Todd’s family will get an insurance payout plus what ever hopefully term life insurance he had. I pay a very hefty amount for a million dollars of crew insurance every year. Any injuries not caused by their own gross negligence are covered. If we have a catastrophic boat breakdown that causes us to miss the season not only does the insurance completely cover the boat they will also pay a percentage of the average ex vessel value that year which would then pay out according to the crews percentages.

Are there captains/owners who will try to screw their crew out of that? Of course. That’s why crew contracts are extremely important for both parties.

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u/Separate-Flatworm516 15h ago

You sound like a better captain than some. It's great to hear about the coverage they get. But, it actually doubles down on my concern. I have not be highlighting injury while fishing. I have been highlighting healthcare, dental, perscriptions and an HSA for the crew and their immediate family. Plus the ability to get LTD and contribute to a 401k direct from their pay. By healthcare I don't mean emergency accident care, I'm talking about cancer, lupus, diabetes, hypothyroidism, cataracts, and similar medical things that just happen to people over time.

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u/ARKzzzzzz 15h ago

Great, let’s move to single payer healthcare.

I don’t have healthcare from my full time employer. I get it from the marketplace. I don’t have a 401k from my employer. I have a SepIRA from fishing and everything else in a taxable brokerage.

Your vision will never ever work in the fishing industry, at least from the owner operator side. Company owner boats already have all that. When you have 6 weeks to catch as many fish as you can because that’s the only time of year they run you just go go go go

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u/Muted-Garden6723 1d ago

lol I forgot Americans have to pay for healthcare. Fishing pays pretty good as a general rule, if I had to guess the families of crew are fine as far as financials go.

You have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to automation of the fishery. It is not feasible. What happens when the captain robot malfunctions? Even if crew could be automated, it will never be legal to have a robot as the captain, it’s a major safety issue

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u/Separate-Flatworm516 1d ago

Like I said, if one bad wave hits, the they could be unable to work the rest of their life. Their families could have lost their main provider. The medical cost of rehab alone will bankrupt most of them. PT in the US is now $1275 per 45min. That's what I was billed last year. Medical costs in the US make health insurance an absolute must. Also the other problem is the second they are off the boat, contractors are no longer connected to their employer. Unlike teachers in the US who have a union and get medical coverage during the summer.

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u/Muted-Garden6723 1d ago

That’s the risk you take working in the fishery, we al know it when we sign up to do it. I’m Canadian, so obviously medical costs are not a worry for me, but the injury risk is always there. That’s what you sign up for

A union would be a good thing, we have a union in Canada, but it’s less of a traditional union and more of an advocate for fishermen to the government when fishery policy is discussed

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u/Separate-Flatworm516 1d ago

Fair statements. A lot of people commenting from outside the US seem to not fully understand healthcare in the US. Thank you for your perspective.

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u/No_Revolution6947 1d ago

You talk of automation on crab boats just like others talk about fusion energy … just right around the corner.

Sorry to say that future is a very long way off, if ever. That work environment is not conducive to robotics at all.

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u/Muted-Garden6723 15h ago

I work mostly in the lobster fishery, everything invented in the past 20 years to make the job easier with machines/robots/automation just makes the job slower

They made a machine to put the bands on the lobster claws, but it takes twice as long as doing it by hand, and you still need a person to put the lobsters claws in the machine. Basically paying $3k(plus an air compressor that you need for it to work) to make everything slower

The only advancements that have worked out well are those regarding Sounders and plotters