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Date of Interview
5-7-2015
Duration of Audio File
01:56:15
Interviewee
Peter Eagan
Gender
Male
Birth Place
Huntington, New York
Occupation/ Work History
Chef, restaurant entrepreneur
Mill or Principal Employer
Fraser Paper Company
Mill Location
Madawaska, Maine
Keywords
Fraser Paper, Paper Industry - Maine, Labor Unions- Paper Industry, Paper Mill Strike - 1971
Abstract
Eagan discusses the technology and business dominance of Great Northern Paper at the time of its peak status as one of the nation's ten largest paper companies, and says a lot about Heuer.
Document Type
Interview
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Peter Eagan, interview by Michael Hillard, May 7, 2015, Stories of Maine's Paper Plantation, Digital Maine, Maine's Economic Improvement Fund, Digital Commons, University of Southern Maine
Peter Egan.mp3 (108983 kB)
Comments
Son of a senior paper engineer and assistant to mill manager. Peter's father was employed through the 1960s and into the 1970s. Was part of the mill's senior leadership team of Mill Manager John "Pete" Heuer. Eagan's father's story is relevant to Fraser and the Fraser Strike of 1971. However, he was employed by Great Northern Paper Company in Millinocket, Maine
The highlight relative to Fraser is that Heuer was hired in 1968 by Fraser to turn around the business. Heuer's three year reign through 1971 was the prime cause of the strike. Heuer had the mill make huge changes and an expansion in capital facilities at Fraser, while taking on the unions. His tactics vis a vis the workers backfired. The other highlight is Egan sharing recollections of the life and ethos of paper mill town prosperity in the 1960s.