Bonded Labor: Canadian Woods Workers in the Maine Pulpwood Industry, 1940–55

Canadian workers began migrating in the mid-nineteenth century from the border regions of Quebec and New Brunswick to harvest timber in the Maine woods. Almost from the beginning this situation embittered Maine workers, who complained that the presence of Canadians depressed wages and working conditions. In spite of these protests, migration persisted into the post-World War II years. This continuing migration pattern derived partly from tradition and partly from geography. Due to the proximity of the two provinces' border towns to remote cutting areas in Maine, Canadians were easier for American companies to recruit than domestic workers. Higher wages paid in Maine than in New Brunswick or Quebec also attracted Canadians. The key to the persistence of Canadian labor migration, however, was the political economy of the paper industry itself. Increasingly complex U.S. immigration restrictions disrupted Canadian woods labor migrations in the 19408, yet despite this interference the traditional migration continued into the 1970s. Special immigration laws that developed to protect domestic workers and regulate the flow of Canadians into the Maine woods ultimately worked to industry advantage. The cross-border program helped systematize the flow of foreign labor and discipline rural Canadian workers by bonding them to specific company operations. The politics of the crossborder woods labor migrations demonstrated the ability of the powerful Maine paper industry to neutralize the potentially negative impact of government regulations and to absorb the bonded labor program into its own agenda for controlling the work force in the Maine woods during the 1940s and 1950s. 1 Traditional Migration