No other industry has been as important to the development of Coos County, Oregon than
\nforest products. \u00ac The original sawmills built by Henry Luse and Asa Simpson in the
\nearly 1850\u2019s started Coos Bay on the path to prominence. Next came the massive sawmills.
\nbuilt by Elijah Smith of the Oregon Southern Improvement company at Empire, Oregon and
\nCharles Axel Smith\u2019s investment in the \u201cBig Mill\u201d at Bunker Hill that encouraged outside capital
\nto the region and the local forest industry blossomed. As the forest industry grew, labor was
\nnecessary to cut the massive trees, man the giant saws that converted the giant logs to lumber,
\nand the longshoremen who loaded the cargo ships for the California markets.<\/p>\n
\u00acThe introduction of the plywood operations by Menasha Woodenware, Weyerhaeuser and
\nCoos Head and paper mills built by Menasha and International Paper Company expanded the
\nregions reach into multiple wood products. With the growth of the industry came the need to
\norganize employees in collective bargaining units to improve wages and working conditions.
\n\u00acThis book traces the development of labor unions in the forest industry throughout the Pacific
\nNorthwest in general and around Coos Bay in particular. It is an interesting story about strikes,
\nfederations, labor councils and sometimes violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![\"Logs,](\"https:\/\/billlansing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Logs-Lumber-and-labor-unions-cover.png\")
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