The FPU was founded on November 3, 1908 by William Coaker and nineteen men following a speech by him at the Orange Hall in Herring Neck as a cooperative movement for fishers on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. It was the first serious attempt to organize fishers 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 in order to attain an equitable distribution of wealth in the fishing industry.