You Had a Job for Life Page 34

16. Eoin Cannon, “Wausau Papers to Buy Mill in Maine,” Berlin Reporter, February 13, 1997.

  17. Editorial, “Painful Decision Will Pay Off for Paper Company,” Wausau Daily Herald, March 25, 1998.

  18. Tom Craven, “Pretty Scary Stuff . . .” Wausau Happenings, October 1998, 1; Tom Craven, “Our Customers Are Talking . . .” Wausau Happenings, November 1998, 1; Tom Craven, “No Correlation,” Wausau Happenings, April 1999, 1; Dave Atkinson, “S.O.S.,” Wausau Happenings, March 2000, 1.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN A Battle We Couldn’t Win

  1. Democrat, May 19, 1993.

  2. “International Paper Announces Plan to Transform Its Business Portfolio and Performance,” International Paper news release, July 19, 2005.

  3. Edith Tucker, “IP Owns Controlling Share of GPB,” Democrat, January 11, 2006; Donna Jordan, “Paper Mill Closing Comes at ‘Ironic Time,’” Lancaster Herald, January 6, 2006.

  4. Edith Tucker, “Local 61 and GPB Ink Closure Contract,” Democrat, January 11, 2006.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN Controllables and Uncontrollables

  1. Dan Chancey, “What Is Co-generation?” Wausau Happenings, April–May 2001, 3.

  2. Lloyd Irland, “Paper Making in Maine: Economic Trends, 1894–2000,” Irland Group Forestry Consultants, working draft, April 5, 2003, 12.

  3. Dave Atkinson, “Ready, Set, Go!!!,” Wausau Happenings, September–October 2002, 2.

  4. Dave Atkinson, “2005—a Roller Coaster Ride for Sure!!!!??,” Wausau Happenings, Summer 2005, 2.

  5. Dave Atkinson, “Times Are Changing—for the Good!!!,” Wausau Happenings, Autumn 2004, 2.

  6. “Wausau Paper Launches Strategic Timberland Sales,” Wausau Happenings, Summer 2005, 11.

  7. Dave Atkinson, “Unprecedented Energy Prices Cause Dramatic Shift in Groveton Operations!,” Wausau Happenings, Fall 2005, 2.

  EPILOGUE They Ruined This Town

  1. Mitch Lansky, “Beyond the Beauty Strip: A 20th Year Retrospective,” 30–31. PDF, written in 2012, can be downloaded at www.meepi.org/lif/BTBS20yearslater.doc.

  2. Lloyd Irland, “Maine’s Forest Products Sector and Regional Disparities,” in Spreading Prosperity to the “Other Maines”: Reflections on Regional Disparities, ed. Lisa Pohlmann and David Vail (Maine Center for Economic Policy, November 2005), 111.

  POSTSCRIPT The Day When Corporate America Doesn’t Run Us

  1. See Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014).

  2. Marshall Sahlins, “The First Affluent Society,” in Stone Age Economics (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1972), 1–2.

  3. Mitch Lansky, “Principles, Goals, Guidelines and Standards for Low-Impact Forestry,” in Low-Impact Forestry: Forestry as If the Future Mattered, ed. Mitch Lansky (Hallowell: Maine Environmental Policy Institute, 2002), 22.

  4. Mary S. Booth, “Trees, Trash, and Toxics: How Biomass Energy Has Become the New Coal,” Partnership for Policy Integrity, April 2014, http://www.pfpi.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PFPI-Biomass-is-the-New-Coal-April-2–2014.pdf.

  5. Alaina L. Berger, Brian Palik, Anthony W. D’Amato, Shawn Fraver, John B. Bradford, Keith Nislow, David King, and Robert T. Brooks, “Ecological Impacts of Energy-Wood Harvests: Lessons from Whole-Tree Harvesting and Natural Disturbance,” Journal of Forestry 11, no. 2 (March 2013): 139–53.

  6. For a comprehensive examination of problems associated with large biomass plants, whole-tree harvesting, and the carbon sequestration potential for older forest stands see Mitch Lansky, “The Double Bottom Line: Managing Maine’s Forests to Increase Carbon Sequestration and Decrease Carbon Emissions,” April 2016, http://www.meepi.org/lif/.

  Index

  NOTE: Page numbers in italics indicate images; page numbers with “n” indicate endnotes.

  Abenaki, 11

  accounting department, 107, 133, 136, 176

  acid tower, 36–37, 62, 67, 144

  alcohol consumption, 23, 33–34, 62, 120–23

  Allin, Charlie, 46

  Alyward, L. J., 151

  American Federation of Labor (AFL), 78

  Ampad, 168

  Amusu (movie theater), 100

  Androscoggin River, 27, 134

  Astle, Bill: childhood, 21; on James River, management of, 169–70, 173–74, 176, 178, 190; on Jim Wemyss Jr., 157, 162, 176, 180–81, 190; on mill closing, 245; pollution, 40; shift work, 114; shipping department, 222–23; social worker, 22, 121–23; summer jobs, 104, 146; on Tom Howatt, 192–94, 201; on Wausau, 222, 236

  Astle, Edgar, 98, 114

  Astle, Owen, 133

  Atkinson, Murray Thomas “Bucko,” 160

  Atkinson, Dave: on career at mill, 237; closing of mill, 226–31; on corporate America, 247; family atmosphere at mill, 241; final months of mill, 232–36; Groveton Paper Board and, 202–3, 213–15; James River and, 175, 181–82, 196; on Jim Wemyss, 164; mill employees’ opinions of, 201, 242; mill’s struggle for survival, 6, 222–25, 248; paper industry future, 245; superintendent of mill, 218–24; on Tom Howatt, 201; Voluntary Early Retirement Program, 199–200; Wausau mills, 186–90, 192, 194–98

  Atkinson, Thomas William, 90

  Atkinson, Thomas Murray, 128, 164

  Auger, Albert, 23

  Auger, Dave, 234

  Bagley and Sewell, 53

  Bailey, Jim, 176–77

  Baird, Bill, 108, 161

  Baird, Iris, 159, 161

  Barnett, Webster (Web), 119–20, 137, 142, 146–47, 172, 179, 190

  Bean, Amie, 50

  Bearce, George B., 53

  Bearce, Samuel R., 53

  beater room. See stock prep department

  Beaton, Franklin “Honey,” 70

  Bellows, Charles, 12

  Benoit, Lawrence, 34, 48–50, 96–97, 121, 240

  Berlin, NH, 20, 134, 238

  Berlin Paper Mill: history, 19, 64, 69, 77, 83, 88, 96, 130, 220; James River and, 156, 169, 176–77, 181; dry pulp sales to Groveton, 77, 167, 187

  Berube, Joe, 41–49, 46, 138, 171–72, 195–96, 199, 241, 259

  Bigelow, Irene, 88

  Black Clausen, 115–16

  bleach plant, 2, 39, 62, 67, 111–12, 144, 216, 263n1

  Blodgett, Bruce, 8, 30, 34, 109, 160, 231–32, 242, 259

  Blodgett, Thurman, 18–19, 47, 120–21, 138, 148, 243

  blow pits, 39, 144

  blue laws, 85, 112–13

  Bofinger, Paul, 183

  boilers: blue laws and, 112; co-generation, 219; crews, 23–24, 82–83, 97; history, 20, 51–53, 55, 60, 69–70, 92; Hynie, 101; incinerator, 148; labor strikes and, 66, 153; wood–fired, 30, 149–51, 197, 223–24

  Boise Cascade, 154

  Boston and Maine Railroad, 12, 64–65

  Bothwell, J. W., 68

  Boucher’s store, 86, 121

  Bowater, Inc., 197

  Box USA, 210–11

  Brainerd (MN) mill, 221–22, 229, 245

  Breault, Joan Gilcris, 35, 46, 77, 94, 101–5, 119, 138–42, 242–43

  Breault, Larry, 173

  Breault, Susan, 153

  Brokaw (WI) paper mill, 186–87, 190, 195, 199, 220, 229, 233, 236, 243, 245

  Brompton Pulp and Paper Company, 67–69

  Brooklyn Dam, 17–18, 30–31, 54–55, 69–70, 135, 227–28

  Brooklyn Street, 13, 101

  Brooks, Conley, 155

  Brown, Bud, 87–89, 106–7

  Brown, Neal, 18–20, 87, 106, 122, 125

  Brown, Shirley, 15, 20, 69, 71–73, 82, 87, 89, 98, 106–7

  Brown Company (Berlin). See Berlin Mill

  Brubaker, Terry, 167

  bull gangs, 14, 124, 173

  Burgess biomass plant, 254–56

  Bushey, Tom, 19, 181, 188, 193, 204, 220–22, 228–29, 232–36, 241

  Campbell Stationery, 8, 145–46, 153, 156, 168, 170, 178, 189–90, 251

  cancer, 20, 114, 263n2

  Canton converting plant, 106, 131

  Caouette, Louise, 157
, 170, 178, 201, 240, 245

  Caouette, Ted, 47, 114, 138–39, 143, 156, 169, 171, 175–76, 189, 196, 200

  Cape Horn, 244

  Cardin, Pete, 32, 34–35, 46–49, 175–77, 180, 187–88, 202–04, 206, 208–13, 215–19

  Carlson, Stu, 228–30

  Caron, Roger, 39, 154, 236–39, 241–42

  Cheng, John, 56

  Chiaravattati, Ambrosio, 61

  chlorine, 39, 70–71

  clarifiers. See waste water treatment

  Clifford, John D., 53

  climate change, 7, 185, 250–57

  Cloutier, Albert, 28–29

  Cloutier, Greg, 3–4, 37, 109–10, 125, 149–50, 155–57, 161, 174, 188, 204–10

  Cloutier, Lorenzo (Zo), 91, 101, 243

  Cloutier’s Store, 101

  coal, 15, 17, 20, 57, 66, 72, 82–83, 85, 101, 254

  Cochrane, Bob, 178

  Colby, Steve, 173

  commodities, 6, 175–76, 178, 199, 210, 219, 222, 225, 248–51, 257

  community, Groveton: absentee ownership and, 6, 211, 219–20; Jim Wemyss and, 103, 109–10, 157, 164; local ownership and, 247–48, 257; mill closing, impact on, 5–7, 237, 240–43, 247; mill domination of, 13; natural and human, 7, 250–51; strength of, 21–22, 35, 154, 247–48; Wausau and, 201

  company store. See Groveton Paper Company Store

  Concord and Montreal Railroad, 12, 25, 51

  Connecticut River, 7, 11–12, 27, 65, 134, 144, 247, 250

  construction, mill: crews, 68, 110–13, 115–16, 121, 135, 216; history, 53, 67–69, 91

  converting plant, 16, 85, 87–88, 102, 106

  Conway process meetings, 157

  Coos County, 11, 25, 70, 75, 236, 245

  Coos County Democrat: on Diamond International, 147, 151–54; on forests, Coos County, 25; on Groveton, 61–62; on James River, 167, 177–78; on labor issues, 58–60, 63, 70, 78–79, 102; on mill, 27, 51–55, 57–58, 70–71; on Jim Wemyss Sr., 98, 108

  Coos County Registry of Deeds, 52

  Coös Magazine, 179, 179–80

  Cote, Jerome, 82

  covered bridge (Groveton), 18, 56, 135–136, 136

  Craven, Tom, 197, 218

  Crown Zellerbach, 156, 173

  Currier, Richard, 97

  Cushing, Guy, 93

  Cushing, Snip, 31

  dams, 12–15, 17–18, 27, 29–32, 54, 64, 76, 100–1, 133–35. See also Brooklyn Dam

  Dasher, Scott, 234

  Davenport, Larry, 173

  Deering, Alfred, 66

  Democrat. See Coos County Democrat

  Depression, Great, 69, 72, 77–79, 91, 94, 109–10, 118, 124

  Diamond International Corporation: board of directors, 1, 133, 139, 149–50, 155–57; Goldsmith, Sir James and, 1, 149, 151, 154–57, 243–44, 248; Groveton mill and, 133, 136–37, 140, 151–53, 176; Groveton Paper Board and, 115; Groveton selectmen and, 147; labor issues, 139–40, 145–46, 153–54, 191; merger with Wemyss Family, 1, 130–33, 243; James River acquisition, 156, 168; Manchester Machine Division, 142, 146, 155; Queen of Diamonds, 142–43, 196; Shirley MacDow, 164; timberlands, 155, 167, 182–83, 244

  Diamond land sale, 182–85

  digesters, 19, 37–39, 53–54, 54, 66, 68–69, 82, 95, 100, 118, 143–44

  Dinty Moore’s Diner, 16, 18, 139

  Domtar Corporation, 177

  Downing, Billie, 59

  Downing, Henry, 27–28

  drum barker, 17, 21, 32–33, 69, 109, 121

  Dube, Armand, 139, 169

  Duffy, Ray, 206–8, 210

  dynamite, 27, 30–31, 76, 92, 153

  Eagle Hotel, 14, 16, 121

  Eames, John, 12

  Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp., 235

  economy: global, 5–6, 11, 184–85, 245, 248–50; mill closing, impact on, 240, 247, 250; prosperity, post-war, 17, 87–88, 100, 147, 248; revitalization, 7, 183–85, 247–57; United States, 12, 67, 82, 248. See also Depression, Great; Groveton: economy

  energy: carbon sequestration, 253–56; conservation, 6, 195; costs, 6, 40, 147–49, 219, 248–49; crisis, 147–49, 151, 191, 244, 256; economy, low energy, 249, 255, 257; Groveton Paper Board and, 167–68, 210–11, 214; James River and, 168, 175; markets, global, 248–49; Wausau and, 197, 199, 219–24, 233; wood, 254–56. See also boilers; coal; natural gas

  Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, 141, 145, 170

  Evans, Pearson G., 51

  Everett’s Diner, 16, 18, 91, 139, 204

  filter plant, 69, 91

  finishing rooms: history, 53–54, 59, 59–60, 69, 96; Number 1: 106, 110, 146, 154, 175–76; Number 4: 101–6, 146, 190; union and, 113, 119, 141–42, 154, 163, 199; Wausau and, 193, 196, 224. See also Campbell Stationery; Wyoming Valley paper mill

  flood, 1969: 27, 134–37, 136

  Fogg, Lester, 28

  Forest Service, U. S., 183

  Fortier, Norm, 227, 234

  Fournier, Leonard, 14, 79, 87, 121, 162

  Franklin, Ronald, 154–55

  free trade, 6, 248

  Frizzell, Kathy, 13, 19–22, 125–29

  Frizzell, Leon, 129

  Gagnon, Albert (Puss), 15–16, 23–24, 30–31, 75, 91, 97, 122

  Gardner, Edmund, 75

  Garland Mill, 254–57

  Gaudette, Armand, 30, 134

  Gaudette, Arthur, 86

  Générale Occidentale, 182

  Georgia Pacific, 130, 149, 220

  Gestetner Company, 152–53

  Gibbons, Thomas, 27

  Gilcris, Duke, 101, 103

  Gilman (VT) paper mill, 89, 149–50

  Giroux, Ron, 231

  Goldsmith, Sir James, 1, 5, 151, 154–57, 167, 173, 182, 244, 248

  Gonyer, John, 111–12, 115–16, 235

  Gorham (NH) paper mill, 130, 156, 176–77, 181

  Gould, Jay, 147

  Goulet, Richard, 198

  Gouvernor (NY) paper mill, 78, 93

  Grand Trunk Railway, 12, 145

  Great Northern Paper Company, 27, 182

  Gropaco News, 31, 67–69

  Groveton Advertiser, 61–65, 133

  Groveton: childhood in, 13–22, 72–73, 85–86; community, tight-knit, 13, 21–22, 237, 251; downtown, 1, 18–29, 55–56, 100; economy of, 5–7, 12–13, 56, 60, 194, 197, 232; history, 11–13, 25, 60–62, 72, 82–84; mill closing, impact of, 240–46; selectmen, 78, 146–47; social problems, 20, 120–28. See also community, Groveton

  Groveton High School, 23, 56, 83, 102, 108, 233, 240

  Groveton Mills, 51–52

  Groveton Paper Company, 67–69, 74, 74–76

  Groveton Paper Company Store, 13, 15–16, 66–67, 85

  Groveton paper mill: 2; cleanliness of, 95–97; community and, 13–16, 19–22, 92–93, 240–41; deaths and injuries at, 41, 49–50, 52 54, 70, 112, 123; demolition of, 7–8, 214–15, 217, 238–39, 244, 245, 247, 252; economic lessons of closing, 247–57; fires at, 64–67, 89–90; history of, 11, 25, 51–56, 63–71; impact of closing, 240–43; Jim Wemyss Sr. and, 75–76, 79–84, 97–99; labor issues, 35, 81–82, 89–91, 112–15, 146, 189–90; product line, diversity of, 1, 78, 93, 100, 118, 158, 168, 247; safety, 95, 123, 169, 200, 215; schools and, 109–10, 125–26; social problems and, 119–24, 242; timberlands, 28–29

  Groveton Papers Company, 74–75, 145, 156, 243

  Groveton Paper Board: 2; closing of, 7, 210–14; history, 100–1, 115–18, 202–9; and James River Corp., 167–68, 180; Jim Wemyss Jr. and, 157, 177, 180, 202–7; paper production, 203–12; and Wausau, 187–188, 202–4, 213–15, 218. See also paper machines: Number 5; pulp mill, semi–chemical

  Gulf and Western Corporation, 130

  Halsey, Brenton, 173–74

  Hamilton, William, 58–60

  Harriman, Arthur, 76

  Harrodsburg, Ky, 234

  Harry Potter, 225

  Hessenauer, Cyrus, 75, 81

  Hiltz, Jack, 149, 151, 167

  Hinckley, Dr. Robert, 24, 143

  Holyoke, George, 12
>
  Houston, U. G., 69

  Howatt, Tom, 187, 190–95, 197, 201, 218, 226–28, 234, 237, 242

  incinerator, 148

  International Brotherhood of Paper Makers Local 41: 63, 88–91, 141. See also United Paper Makers International Union, Local 61

  International Brotherhood of the Pulp Sulphite Workers and Mill Workers Local 61: 63, 88–91, 141. See also United Paper Makers International Union, Local 61

  International Paper, 27, 134, 182, 211–12

  International Workers of the World (IWW), 66

  Irland, Lloyd, 245

  ITT-Rayonier Inc., 177

  Jackson, Edwin, 16, 82

  Jackson, Raymond, 16, 82–83, 87

  James River Corporation: acquisition of mill, 1, 156–58, 167; Campbell Stationery and, 168; community relations, 174; financial problems, 173–75, 192–93; history, 167–70, 176; investment in mill, 1, 173–76, 181, 192–93; Jim Wemyss Jr. and, 157–58, 168, 174–75, 180–81, 187–88; mill for sale by, 176–81, 186–90; paper production, 169–70, 174–75; unions and, 167, 177–79, 189–91, 198, 241; women and, 170–73

  Jefferson Smurfit, 203, 206, 210

  Jenssen towers, 37

  Jewell, Bill, 48

  Jordan, Donna, 179–80

  Kelley, Charles, 63

  Kimball, Ray, 70

  King, Belvah, 106, 108, 124, 138, 240

  King, Mickey, 64, 108, 122–24, 162

  Kingston, Dana, 145

  Kingston, Jazzo, 159

  Koslo, Bill, 156

  LaBonta, Robert, 183–84

  Labrecque, Gerard, 29, 38, 105, 109, 144

  Labrecque, Pauline, 103–5, 138, 146, 245–46

  Lacroix, Joe, 153

  Lansky, Mitch, 185, 253

  LaPointe, Lawrence: on co-workers, 21, 110; on drum barker, 33, health and safety, 39, 47, 122, 140–41; on James River, 169; on Jim Wemyss, 160; stock prep department, 40, 114–15, 163, 195

  Leahy, Senator Patrick, 183

  Ledger, Coleen, 107

  Ledger, James, 112

  Leopold, Aldo, 251

  Libby & Coulombe attorneys, 62

  lignin, 36, 39

  Lincoln, Maine, 235

  Lincoln, New Hampshire, 20

  Livingstone, Charles Brand, 133

  Livingstone, Earl, 116

  Local 61. See United Paper Makers International Union, Local 61

  loggers, 13, 18, 25–29, 57, 69, 81, 197, 245, 253–56

  Love in the Afternoon. See paper machines, Number 5