Early Labor Unions

             From the early days, GNP mill workers had work designations such as boss machine tender, back tender, 3^rd. 4^th, 5^th hand, swiper, rewinder, clothing man or finisher in the paper room. There were mechanical tradesmen referred to as millright, piper, carpenter, electrician or oiler. There were cooks (acid makers in the sulfite plant). A worker might be a foreman of the wood room, grinder room or finishing room.

            Dorothy Bowler Laverty’s 1971 book tells the story of Millinocket. It includes the following information about GNP during the WWI time frame. She states that the workers mentioned above “worked from 7AM to 7PM on the day shift or from 6PM to 7PM on the night shift.” This was seven days a week. However, the pay was a certainty and the men were paid in cash every Friday of the year. Laverty states that every Friday, Fred Gates (police chief/fire chief) could be seen “buckling on his holster in readiness to bring the Company payroll from the railroad station to the mill.” Base pay for a common laborer was $1.50 a day for a seven-day week. Skilled labor received $2.00 to $2.50 a day and a machinist would get $3.00 to $5.00 a day. The men would line up in the mill yard in front of the check office shack (with their round metal numbered disks which were their identification tags) to receive their cash payments. The paymaster generally memorized every man’s ID number.

            The first papermakers who arrived in Millinocket were union men having worked in paper mills elsewhere. The International Machine Tenders Union was represented here in 1901. An early local union formed was #27 of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers. Local Union #69 of the International Brotherhood of Firemen, Oilers and Helpers was also formed. By 1906, Local Union #12 of the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulfite and Papermill Workers formed. Other mechanical trades came soon after.

            The museum has an original GNP union charter dated 1904 for the Central Labor Union. It was signed by Samuel Gompers, one of the original leaders of the union movement in the early 1900’s. It is framed and currently on display.

            Between 1901 and 1907, some changes came about at the mill. Men worked 8- hour shifts on the paper machines and time was counted by the hour not the day. Papermakers shut down the machines on Sunday at 8 AM until 8 AM Monday. This caused some turmoil with the Pulp and Sulfite Union men who also worked an 8-hour shifts, but refused to work on Sundays. For a time, work at the mill was interrupted (no specific date given), but by the spring of 1908, the workmen came to terms. There would be no more 56-hour workweek and machines could be shut down on Sundays. Local #27 International Brotherhood of Papermakers regained its charter at that time and the mill returned to papermaking.

** Many readers know that the information in the book written by Dorothy Bowler Laverty is from her memory of many events, her talks with locals, her research in old newspapers and company records and information and photos passed down from her father Frank Bowler. Bowler came to town early to work as a draftsman for GNP and was later head of the engineering department.