Richard Cashin

Who is Richard Cashin?

Richard Joseph Cashin, PC OC is a lawyer and former Canadian politician and trade union leader.

The grandson of Sir Michael Cashin and nephew of Peter Cashin, Richard Cashin is a member of a prominent Newfoundland political family. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1962 general election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for St. John's West. He remained an MP throughout the Pearson era, being re-elected in 1963 and 1965 elections.

He was named parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Fisheries in 1966. After several years as an MP, during Progressive Conservative and Liberal minority governments, Cashin suffered a major upset when he was one of the few incumbent Liberal MPs to lose his seat in the 1968 general election that returned a Liberal majority government led by Pierre Trudeau.

After his political defeat, Cashin returned to his law practice. He won a major settlement for fishermen in Placentia Bay in a lawsuit against the Electric Reduction Company whose toxic waste damaged the local fishery industry.

In 1970, Cashin joined with Father Desmond McGrath in a successful effort to organize fishers into a new trade union, which became the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union. Cashin and McGrath crossed the province organizing the union, and at the union's founding convention held in 1971, Cashin was elected its first president. The union was successful in pressuring fishing companies in Burgeo to negotiate a contract in 1972, and led trawlermen in successful strike action in 1975. Through these actions, the union grew and established itself as the largest union in the province.