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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Not strike at the Western, which was thought to have more liberal working policies. The strikers, mostly Finns, lost their jobs.The union ultimately came into the mill in 1942 bringing better working conditions and most importantly, establishing the principal of seniority. Nevertheless, in 1946 there was a six-month strike at the Bonner Mill between supporters of the AFL (mill workers) and the CIO (lumber camp workers). One retired mill worker remembered that Anaconda contributed to the tension. After that the AFL became the official union of the entire ACM Lumber Division.An aerial photo from the late 1930s shows a near empty log yard. The mill operated two to three days during the Depression. The Company closed the Company store once the union was adopted. Nevertheless some long-term workers suggested that overall "there were few strikes…[we have] never seen a more compatible relation between labor and management…everyone was on a first name basis…."The Depression hit Bonner and Milltown hard but the mill tried to keep the work force together by only working three days or less. One resident remembered, "A lot of older folks retired and didn’t work again. It took about seven years to get back to normal. People 'got by.' During the Depression everyone hunted." A lot of the workers went into WWII, but no women were hired by the mill. Since military service counted toward seniority, "There was no problem getting a job after the war."
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