Protesting workers began an occupation Monday of the provincial fisheries building in St. John's. Some of them met with Deputy Minister Alastair O'Reilly, seen at the head of this conference room table. (CBC)

The deputy premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is disputing a union's claim that the government has lost interest in fisheries issues, and the plight of scores of small communities that rely on it.

Several dozen fishermen and plant workers from across the province occupied the provincial fisheries building in St. John's on Monday, in the latest step by the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union to command government attention on a disastrous fishing season.

St. Anthony plantworker Trudy Byrne: '"We're not going to die, and we're not going to sit down and let them let us die.' (CBC)

But Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale insisted the government has been mindful of problems in the industry, and is taking action. She said the government is willing to pay 30 per cent of the cost of rationalizing the province's fishing fleet.

"We're there on early retirement," Dunderdale said.

"We've been there in terms of the marketing arm — $100 million we put on the table in an offer to buy Fishery Products' marketing arm," said Dunderdale, referring to the U.S. marketing division of the former Fishery Products International.

"There is a constant, continuous engagement with this industry by this government," she said, adding government has been trying to launch a seafood marketing council to improve yields for harvesters and producers alike.

FFAW demonstrators says government has shown only a limited interest in the fishing industry, particularly in small rural communities that have had little work because prices have been too low for fishermen to cover their harvesting costs.

"If I don't work, my community don't live. They die," said Trudy Byrne, a fish plant worker from St. Anthony who took part in Monday's occupation of Fisheries Minister Tom Hedderson's office.

"There's a lot of small communities … if they don't have money in the communities, how can they live? You know they're going to die," she said.

"We're not going to die, and we're not going to sit down and let them let us die."

The FFAW said the fishery is a critical issue for the government, as this year's season has been all but wrecked by collapsing prices. Fishermen say they cannot afford, for instance, to take to the water for the summer shrimp price set earlier this month by a government-appointed pricing panel.

The fishing season has been marred by disputes over lobster and crab, as well.

Processors say the global economic slump and the strengthening Canadian dollar have seriously hurt the export-sensitive seafood industry.