Port Union is a small community on the east coast of Newfoundland, along the Bonavista Peninsula. As its name suggests, Port Union is best known as the community that founded the Fisherman’s Protective Union (FPU) – a union that serviced Newfoundland and Labrador. The FPU was first created in 1908 by Sir William F. Coaker, whose leadership successfully introduced a better way of life for thousands of people on the northeast coast of Newfoundland, who sustained themselves from the fishery. By 1914. the FPU had approximately 20,000 members, proving its undeniable importance for residents of the province. The town of Port Union was officially incorporated in 1961, with the election of its first mayor.
In the early 1980s, the Port Union railway station was converted into a museum, highlighting the history of the Reid railway, the FPU, the fisheries in the region, and their related companies—many of which have faced closure since the moratorium on cod fishing. By 1992, the FPU premises were vacated, and the Fishery Products International plant was permanently closed due to mass shortages of fish. The museum however, still stands and continues to be an important tourism feature of Port Union.