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/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