Interview with Arthur Gordon 2 of 2
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Date of Interview
6-26-2000
Duration of Audio File
Audio File 1 -- 0:47:05; Audio File 2 -- 0:47:31; Audio File 3 -- 0:36:18
Interviewee
Arthur Gordon
Age
Born May 6, 1924, 76 at time of interview, died January 28, 2006
Gender
Male
Description
Arthur Gordon is considered by Maine labor union leaders and activists to have been the "institutional memory" of S.D. Warren's unionization and Local 1069 of the United Paperworkers International. Gordon spearheaded Local 1069's transformation of Westbrook in the 1960s from a management-dominated Republican city to a union-dominated Democratic city. He served on the Westbrook city council and then the Maine State Legislature, also while being a leader of the movement to improve occupational safety in Maine industrial workplaces.
Residence
Duck Pond Road, Westbrook, Maine
Occupation/Work History
Lab technician, finishing department worker, union leader, Democratic Party activist, Senator in Maine State Legislature, founder of Maine Labor Group on Health, Merchant Shipman during World War II.
Role
Union
Mill or Principal Employer
S.D. Warren Company
Mill Location
Westbrook, Maine
Keywords
S.D. Warren, Sappi, Paper Mills - Maine; Paper industry - Maine - History
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 Arthur Gordon 2 of 2" (2000). S.D. Warren Company. 13.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/sd-warren/13
Comments
Recollections are detailed and colorful. Describes his work in the finishing department, difficulties of mill work life such as effect of shiftwork, and recounts his astute, mostly behind the scenes, efforts to make Local 1069 a powerhouse in both local Democratic politics and within the Maine AFL-CIO.