The Fall of Mother Warren

This chapter highlights Mother Warren's profligate paternalism and century-long bond between local owners and its loyal workforce that came to an end with the mill's surprising unionization in 1967. It reviews Scott Paper's purchase of the S. D. Warren Company, which was a shocking end to the mill's local identity. It also discusses how Warren and its workers were swept by national currents that changed the economic and labor landscape throughout the United States when the mill's paternalism broke down. The chapter talks about Howard Reiche Jr., who worked cooperatively with the new unions and embraced their constructive role in rectifying Warren's outdated pay and supervisory practices. It examines the conflict in Westbrook that led to two strikes as more socially and geographically distant corporate leaders narrowed the space for any continued paternalism.