Title
Interview with Anonymous Company Forestry Manager
Date of Interview
6-15-2006
Duration of Audio File
Disc 1 1:14:41 Disc 2 0:20:27
Interviewee
Anonymous
Age
between 45 and 60 years old
Gender
Male
Birth Place
Not available
Residence
Not available
Occupation/ Work History
Forestry manager in charge of woodcutting operations and wood procurement.
Role
Management
Mill or Principal Employer
Not available
Mill Location
Not available
Keywords
Woodcutters Strike, Maine Labor History, Maine Paper Industry
Abstract
This interview describes evolution of economic arrangements between a paper company and woodcutters over thirty year period beginning in the 1970s.
Document Type
Interview
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Interview with Dick Chamberlain by Michael Hillard, June 16, 2006, Stories of Maine's Paper Plantation, Digital Maine, Maine's Economic Improvement Fund, Digital Commons, University of Southern Maine.
Comments
Interviewee describes the evolution of woodcutting technology during the era of "mechanization" when loggers transitioned from using chainsaws and skidders to mechanized operations using feller bunchers and grapple skidders. Loggers were hired directly for "company crews" to use the more advanced equipment during the 1960s, 1970s, and most of the 1980s. Contractors used the older technology. Once technology was mastered by companies, contractors were willing take on risk of buying the much more productive mechanized technology. Over time, using contractors was less costly because companies could use their economic might to reduce loggers' income, which they did in the 1990s. Interview is very detailed and describes the evolution of the complex arrangements between loggers and the companies; also a great deal on the companies' abandonment of using French Canadian guest workers in the years after the Maine Woodmens Association (MWA) strike of 1975.