Fisherman's Protective Union

The Fishermen's Protective Union (sometimes called the Fisherman's Protective Union, the FPU, The Union or the Union Party) was a workers' organisation and political party in the Dominion of Newfoundland. In many ways, the development of the FPU matched that of the United Farmers movement in parts of Canada.

The FPU was founded on 3 November 1908 by William Coaker and nineteen men following a speech by him at the Orange Hall in Herring Neck as a cooperative movement for fishermen on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. It was the first serious attempt to organise fishermen as a political movement along class lines. With a rallying cry of "to each his own" the FPU sought to achieve reforms in Newfoundland society to attain an equitable distribution of wealth in the fishing industry.

At its peak, it had more than 21,000 members in 206 councils across the island; more than half of Newfoundland's fishermen. The FPU set up the Fishermen's Union Trading Co. (UTC) which established stores throughout the province which would purchase fish from fishermen for cash and would also import goods to sell to fishermen directly at a non-inflated price, thus circumventing the St. John's fish merchants. Previously, merchants did not pay cash for fish but advanced fishermen staple goods at an inflated price on credit and then took the fishermen's cured fish at the end of the season at rate determined by the merchant – a system which kept most fishermen in perpetual debt making him dependent on the merchant.

The party retained much of its support from Newfoundland's Protestants and had links with the Orange Order. As a consequence, it was distrusted and vigorously opposed by elements within the Roman Catholic Church who opposed the union due to its constitutional requirement of secrecy, its trade unionism and its alleged socialism. Archbishop M.F. Howley of St. John's, objected to the FPU due to his concerns that the secular union might undermine the church's authority among Catholics living in Newfoundland's outports. Howley's successor, Archbishop Roche, was even more opposed to the union, particularly when it moved towards political activity. The church's hostility impeded the union's ability to recruit members in Catholic areas such as the southern Avalon Peninsula.

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