The Weyerhaeuser Company began
timber operations in the Everett area around 1900 with the
construction of their first sawmill. It continued to
grow into a large and successful company eventually expanding into the
papermaking industry. In 1953, the second of two Kraft
mills opened operations in Everett. Kraft mills were a vital step in
the production of paper pulp. The Kraft process utilized
sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide to extract the harmful but
naturally occurring degenerative chemical, lignin, from wood
fibers.
The workers in the Everett Weyerhaeuser Mill were organized
first as the Local 236 of the International Brotherhood of Pulp,
Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers. In 1965, as corruption
supposedly filled the ranks of the International Brotherhood,
the workers then joined the newly formed Association of Western
Pulp and Paper Workers. The AWPPW's motto, adopted in 1965, was and still is, "Guard Well the Democratic
Rights of Your Members" and they bill themselves as one
of the most democratic unions in the country. The Everett
Kraft Local #10 was active at the Weyerhaeuser Mill, where
employees struck on numerous occasions throughout the 1960s and
1970s. The AWPPW and Weyerhaeuser still operate to this day,
although the
Everett Kraft Mill and the Local #10 union do not.
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