From the early days of the FPU's founding, the union attracted sympathy and support in some quarters and fierce opposition in others. While the FPU was popular among many fishermen, it was deeply unpopular among merchants, the political elite, and some religious elites.
Relationship with Political and Business Elites Coaker initially had had a warm relationship with the progressive
Plaindealer newspaper and
Edward Morris's
People's Party, and had eschewed the
Liberals, who, under Prime Minister
Robert Bond had favoured
limited government and
retrenchment. But by the spring of 1909, he had incurred the enmity of the
Plaindealer's editors and financiers, and over time the FPU shifted its support toward the Liberals. The FPU was the target of heated rhetoric throughout much of its history, particularly in its early years. Journalists, parliamentarians and others attacked the union for attempting to undermine duly constituted order, for seeking to alter the inexorable law of supply and demand, or being "godless." Later, attacks on the FPU came in the form of attempts to associate it with the Bolshevik Revolution and Marxism. However, the acrimony between the FPU and Newfoundland's elites went both ways. One notable event in FPU history was its protests and petitions to arrest
Abram Keanfor his role in the sealing disasters of 1914.
Where the FPU was inactive The FPU was also mostly a non-factor in some areas of the country, including St. John's. While a United Trading Company store existed in the capital city, no local council did. The FPU did not seek to extend its influence or mandate to cover other members of the broader working class, though occasionally fishers or sealers held rallies in the city and sometimes received the support of locals. Moreover, the FPU's decision to limit the union's political influence to a
balance of power strategy limited any impulse there might have been to extend its influence further. As Coaker said of the Union Party, "No effort will be made to control public affairs... The Union [members] don’t want to rule..." This meant that even some fishing areas of the country, such as the southwest coast, were deprioritized and tended not to have many councils or UTC stores. This was partly because such fishers were involved in the inshore fishery, which was less conducive to or receptive of the union idea.
Relationship with Roman Catholics The union had Protestant and Catholic supporters, but retained the bulk of its support from Newfoundland's
Protestant fishers in the northeast of the island. It was distrusted and opposed by some elements within the
Roman Catholic Church, including
Archbishop M.F. Howley of St. John's and his successor, Archbishop E.P. Roche, who varyingly took issue with the union's links with the
Orange Order, the initial requirement that members swear an
oath of secrecy, its
unionism, its alleged
socialism and
atheism, its decision to enter politics, The church's hostility initially discouraged the continuation of FPU locals in Catholic areas of the southern Avalon Peninsula, such as those in
Argentia, Salmonier,
Riverhead and
Trepassey. Yet other Catholic officials, including the Bishop of St. George's, Neil McNeil, permitted Catholic membership in the union. By late 1909, the Church quietly dropped its ban on Catholic membership in the union, partly due to these fissures within the church, pressure from lay Catholic fishers, and the FPU's elimination of the oath of secrecy. Catholic councils that had previously folded in Salmonier and Riverhead were reconstituted, and new FPU locals formed in heavily Catholic towns such as Branch, North Harbour, Witless Bay, and Petty Harbour. Coaker estimated that the union had 1,200 Catholic supporters in northern districts. The vice-president of the union, Andrew Broaders, was a Catholic from
Bay de Verde, and during the acrimonious
election of 1913, pressed the case that Catholics could belong in the union. ==Years in Office==