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Date of Interview
6-23-2006
Duration of Audio File
45:26
Interviewee
Dave Edson
Age
60s
Gender
Male
Residence
Berard, Maine
Occupation/ Work History
Scott Company Forester
Mill or Principal Employer
Scott Paper Company
Keywords
Woodcutters Strike, Maine Labor History, Maine Paper Industry
Abstract
Edson discusses the impact that the MWA (Maine Woodmen’s Association) strike of 1975 and various environmental organizations on changing industry practices and also making Maine less attractive to large national paper companies that had purchased Maine mills.
Document Type
Interview
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Dave Edson, interview by Michael Hillard, June 23, 2006, Stories of Maine's Paper Plantation, Digital Maine, Maine's Economic Improvement Fund, Digital Commons, University of Southern Maine
Dave Edson 6-23-06.mp3 (42601 kB)
Comments
Describes evolution of technology and economic arrangements between woodcutters and paper companies from 1970s to 1990s. Especially the role of company crews (loggers hired directly by paper companies) in ensuring wood supplies for mills and then baring the risk in this period for mastering use of mechanized cutting machinery. Once the technology became refined, the companies eagerly turned over their use to contractors because the latter were much less expensive than company crews. Also explains the great willingness of local banks and credit unions to give loans to woodcutting contractors to purchase older technologies (chainsaws and skidders); this was harder once the mechanized equipment became the standard because it would cost between $500,000 and $1,000,000. Only large contractors with large wood contracts with the companies could get these loans.