Background: In this excerpt, Jewish factory owner Louis Borgenicht describes the effects of unionization on his business and personal life. According to his memoir, he was one of the first and few factory owners in the girls’ clothing industry to willingly let his workers unionize.

My working conditions were always up to the best in the industry. Nevertheless, once the union was admitted—and cheerfully—I found a new spirit undermining the old sense of co–operation. Hard feelings for me were encouraged as a deliberate policy. If a cutter did a good day’s work—as some bewildered old–fashioned workers reported—new employees approached him with warnings that he was setting too high a standard of work for the rest.

The first time I heard myself depicted as an enemy of the workers I laughed. I was a worker myself, and always had been. But it was no laughing matter I soon learned.

When a check-up revealed that, paying the same wages and working the same hours as previously, we had fallen far off our production schedule since signing up with the union—in some departments we were getting only sixty per cent of the quota of work—it was time to call a halt…“Either get the other manufacturers to sign up,” I insisted to the union leaders, “so that our labor costs are equalized, or I will have to dispense with the union myself!”

Source: Friedman, Harold. The Happiest Man: The Life of Louis Borgenicht As Told to Harold Friedman. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1942. pp. 309–310

1. How did Louis Borgenicht treat his employees? Why do you think he felt this way?
2. According to his memoir, how did the union change the work ethic of Louis Borgenicht's employees?
3. What were the factors Louis Borgenicht needed to consider when deciding whether or not to allow the union to organize in his shop? Which do you think were most important to him?

Background: Louis Borgenicht kicked the union out of his shop because he felt the union made him less able to compete with other manufacturers. He gave his employees the choice to stay—non–unionized but at the same wages and hours—or leave and find other work. In this excerpt, he describes a strike that was called in his factory as a result of this decision.

Within twenty–four hours a picket line was thrown around the plant. As if to lend spice to it, it was led, actually, by a young cousin of mine whom I had brought over from Europe at his own piteous request. I had reared this boy in my own home and, when he asked for a job, I had placed him in my own office. It was hardly a pleasant feeling to have to pass him every morning, and to listen impotently to his denunciations of me as a swine and an oppressor.

After the first few days “gorillas” visited the homes of the people who were still at work. [In order to keep our employees safe, we resorted] to keeping our employees in nearby hotels, or in the plant itself … no more than a makeshift [plan]. For six weeks I held out, always with the condition that I would sign up again if the other manufacturers did. The union was not concerned with the others. Threats to life came with increasing frequency; our business was reduced to running on one wheel. We gave in.

Again there was no change in wages or conditions. It was purely a matter of union recognition. All the strikers came back, even that fine lad from abroad.

gorillas: In this case, gorillas were people who supported the union who harassed workers who did not support the strike. People who worked even when there was a strike in a shop were called “scabs.”

Source: Friedman, Harold. The Happiest Man: The Life of Louis Borgenicht As Told to Harold Friedman. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1942. p. 310

1. What factors contributed to Louis Borgenicht’s decision to give in to the union?
2. At the end of the excerpt, Louis Borgenicht states: “Again there was no change in wages or conditions. It was purely a matter of union recognition. All the strikers came back, even that fine lad from abroad.” What does he mean by this? Do you think the workers felt like they had “won” or reached their goals? Why or why not?