|
Darlene Young says her first job at Georgia-Pacific in Old Town in 1978 was
“one of the worst jobs in the mill.
It was what you called a ‘facial repack,’ where you had to assort the colors [of facial tissue]
and repack them into a box with assorted colors and it was quite physical work because
my first week I had bruises all up and down my arms from grabbing the boxes and everything.
It was quite a difficult job.
I threatened to quit the first week.”
But Darlene persevered, and after three months in repacking she moved on to the
converting department,
“where you convert the paper product into a specialty product, you know like your
paper towels or your toilet paper and that’s what they called converting.”
Darlene spent the majority of her 28 years at G-P in converting.
She says of the male-dominated workforce,
“I’m not trying to brag up the women but I thought that the women were more
conscientious workers.
I mean I think we felt like we had to prove something because you know they just
didn’t think women should be running that machinery.”
But she and other women proved them wrong.
“Over the years, they had progressed, and kept adding machinery, and I have run every piece of the machinery”
—from wrappers and rewinders, to case packers and clamp trucks.
As negotiations over the sale of the Old Town mill continue, Darlene is hopeful that
she’ll be able to go back to work making paper.
“We’ll see what happens. I’m still optimistic but I’m also moving forward.”
She is also considering going back to school to be a medical assistant, or perhaps
a medical secretary.
She and husband Rick, who worked at Georgia-Pacific as a mechanic, live in
Alton, Maine with their four children.
June 26, 2006 Interview with Darlene Young
|
