Title

Interview with Peter Kellman - 1 of 2

Authors

Michael G. Hillard PhD, University of Southern MaineFollow

Files

Date of Interview

2-13-2003

Duration of Audio File

Audio File 1 -- 01:13:34; Audio File 2 -- 0:32:06

Interviewee

Peter Kellman

Age

Born approximately 1946, aged 57 at time of interview

Gender

Male

Description

Kellman was the most effective militant labor movement organizer in Maine from late 1970s until 2010s. The interview focuses on dramatic labor relations developments in Maine in the late 1980s, including his leadership of Jay workers in building a statewide social movement to attempt to win the 1987-1988 Jay Strike at International Paper. Kellman also details the impact of the strike on labor relations at Scott Paper (including two S.D. Warren mills) in Maine.

Birth Place

Brooklyn, New York

Residence

North Berwick, Maine

Occupation/Work History

Lifelong movement activist, labor history and union strategy scholar (published both books and articles in labor journals). He began in anti-Vietnam War effort, and joined the southern Civil Rights movement (1964-1966) as a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Became a skilled carpenter, worked in a Maine shoe factory that he unionized and then became president of the new union local (New Balance) in late 1970s. Employed by the Project on Corporations, Law and Democracy in support of his writing books and articles.

Role

Union

Mill or Principal Employer

International Paper Mill in Jay, Maine, Maine State AFL-CIO

Mill Location

Jay, Maine

Keywords

Maine paper industry - labor relations; International Paper Co – Jay Strike 1987-1988; corporate concessions 1980s; labor activism; labor relations - Scott Paper

Comments

Learned civil rights movement organizing techniques. in the mid-1960s; these were applied in Jay, Maine in the 1980s. Played a part in radicalizing union locals in other Maine paper mills. He explains how this worked out in the Scott-S.D. Warren mills in Maine and a Scott Tissue plant in Winslow, Maine. Kellman is profiled extensively in an excellent book on the Jay strike: Julius Getman, The Betrayal of Local 14 (Cornell, 1999). Also refer to his book, Divided We Fall: The Story of the Paperworkers' Union and the Future of Labor (Apex Press, 2004).

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 Peter Kellman - 1 of 2" (2003). S.D. Warren Company. 37.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/sd-warren/37