Interview with Bill Butler
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Date of Interview
7-27-2004
Duration of Audio File
Audio File 1 -- 01:20:54; Audio File 2 -- 01:20:52
Interviewee
Bill Butler
Age
Born July 31, 1920, 83 years old at time of interview, died February 18, 2008.
Gender
Male
Birth Place
Terra Haute, Indiana
Residence
Aurora, Maine
Occupation/Work History
He was trained as a metallurgical engineer (B.S. in Metallurgy from the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, NY) and worked for the Curtis-Wright Corporation and as a technical writer for the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee during the 1940s. He moved to Maine and became a woodcutter in the 1950s. Was a leader of the Maine Woodsman’s Association and forestry conservation activist.
Role
Self-employed logging contractor
Mill or Principal Employer
Self-employed logging contractor
Mill Location
Maine
Keywords
Woodcutters Strike, Maine Labor History, Maine Paper Industry
Description
Butler was a key leader and founder of the Maine Woodmen's Association (MWA). The interview includes a description of working conditions for small logging contractors from the 1950s through the time of the 1975 strike. Butler also provides a detailed account of the 1975 strike itself.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Hillard, Michael G. PhD, "Interview with Bill Butler" (2004). Maine Woodman’s Association Strike of 1975. 8.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/maine-woodsmans-strike/8
Comments
Butler was perhaps the strike's most colorful leader, and he provides a potent, blow by blow, account of the strike, especially dealings with the courts and many meetings with Maine Governor James Longley. He was an ardent advocate of the view that the key problem facing Maine loggers was the presence of a large number of French Canadian guest workers hired by paper companies. Also was a critic of the clear cutting of huge swaths of forest by Maine paper companies.