Title

Interview with Marv Ewing

Authors

Michael Hillard, University of Southern MaineFollow

Streaming Media

Date of Interview

7-14-2000

Interviewee

Marv Ewing

Age

Age 65 at time of interview, born in 1935

Gender

Male

Birth Place

St. Petersburg, Florida

Residence

Standish, Westbrook, and Windham, Maine

Occupation/ Work History

Paperworker, local union president, state AFL-CIO vice president, and Maine State Bureau of Labor Standards (including Chair of the Maine Unemployment Commission).

Role

Union

Mill or Principal Employer

S. D. Warren

Mill Location

Westbrook, Maine 04092

Keywords

Paper mills - Maine, Sappi Paper - History, S.D.Warren - Maine

Abstract

Ewing was a union activist and leader at New Jersey factory before working at USM. Ewing was the first major president of S. D. Warren's largest union local, led 1977 strike and trained next generation of union leaders. He left Warren in 1979 to become a professional at Maine's Department of Labor, including a stint as Chair of State's Unemployment Commission.

Comments

Ewing's story illustrates the importance of worker migration to union organization and labor militancy. In six years (1960-1966) at Peter Schweitzer Paper Company in New Jersey, older union leaders mentored Ewing on organizing techniques and union leadership skills. He moved to Westbrook, Maine in 1966 to marry a local woman; her father got him a job at S.D. Warren. He played a supportive but minor role in the mill's 1967 union drive. He became president of United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU) Local 1069 in 1970. During his nine year tenure as President of Local 1069, he led hard nosed negotiations that brought 1069's contract up to industry standards, culminating in a successful 1977 strike that achieved mill wide seniority. He also inculcated younger union leaders in his hard nosed leadership, particularly William "Billy" Carver who was Local 1069 President from the late 1970s until the late 1990s.

Document Type

Interview

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Hillard, Michael, "Interview with Marv Ewing" (2000). S.D. Warren Company. 50.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/warren/50