The United Paperworkers International Union, an organization of pulp and paper industry workers, was founded on August 9, 1972. Local 1166 represents employees of the paper mill at Niagara, Wisconsin, originally owned and operated by the Kimberly-Clark Corporation.
Kimberly-Clark itself was established in 1872 at Neenah, Wisconsin. The company opened the operation at Niagara in 1899, where it erected a whole new community around a pulp and paper-making complex. By the late 1960s, however, the operation at Niagara was no longer profitable. The company attributed this to a sharply reduced market for the printing paper manufactured at the plant. In addition, the corporation faced the prospect of costly expenditures for the installation of pollution control equipment. In April 1972, Kimberly-Clark sold the Niagara plant to Pentare Inc. of St. Paul, Minnesota. At the time these records were prepared for research (1985), Niagara of Wisconsin Paper Corporation, a Pentare subsidiary, continued to operate the facility.
The Paper Mill Workers' Union of Niagara, Wisconsin, was founded at a meeting of 150 employees of the mill on October 10, 1940. Although not documented in the collection, organizing activities at the plant predated that meeting. At this meeting, officers were elected and grievance, classification, and auditing committees were established.
The union engaged in a vigorous organizational campaign in late 1940 and early 1941 and, as a result of an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, was certified on March 10, 1941; the first labor contract with Kimberly-Clark was signed shortly thereafter. Eighty-three percent of the eligible employees voted in favor of the establishment of an all-union shop in an October 14, 1941 referendum conducted by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board. The Paper Mill Workers' Union was certified by the National Labor Relations Board as the exclusive collective bargaining agent for employees on February 21, 1944. The Niagara workers joined with unions at the corporation's other mills in developing plans for effective, concerted action.
The Paper Mill Workers' Union was first affiliated with the Associated Unions of America, but by late 1943, it had severed this connection. It became a part of the Confederated Union of America in July 1944, and a member of the National Federation of Independent Unions around 1963, but disaffiliated from that organization on June 14, 1968. The union was abolished on June 1, 1971, and replaced by Local 205 of the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers Union, AFL-CIO. In 1973, this organization was succeeded by the newly-formed United Paperworkers International Union, Local 1166, which continues at this writing.
Presidents of the Niagara paper mill unions, which together constitute one evolving organization, have included William Dickson (1941-1943), Elmer Bowman (1943-1946), Joseph Canavera (1946- circa 1949), Martin Ponzio (1949-1950; 1952- circa 1966; 1968-1979; 1982-1985), Clifford Raboin (1951), Duane Johnson (1967-1968), and Gordon Shewmaker (1980-1981).
