In Part II of our two-part episode on workers in the Maine logging industry, we chat with Dana Garner, a veteran trucker and wood hauler from St. Francis, and an organizer with the Machinists Union. We talk about Dana’s days driving his rig all over the United States and about coming back home to Maine to work full-time hauling logs out of the woods. We talk about the strains of working 20-hour shifts and being in the cab all day, and about the obvious dangers of driving heavy loads on mountain roads, and we also talk about the ways landowners in the region exploit workers and pit them against one another to meet deadlines and quotas. 

 

Additional links/info below...

• Staff, Mainebiz, "Maine Loggers and Wood Haulers Gain Right to Bargain Collectively"
• Andy O'Brien, Maine AFL-CIO, "Weekly Update: Labor Lobby Day, Dinner with Jared Golden & The First Strike of Irish Mainers"
• Dan Morgan, The Washington Post, "Company 'Slavery' Ignites Maine Woodsmen's Union (1977)"
• Beth Brogan, News Center Maine, "Maine Loggers Poised to Unionize"

 

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• Cletus Got Shot, "Congressman"