Engineered Curtainwall
Engineered Curtainwall
Over the course of the 1950s, it was becoming clear that the future of windows would be made from aluminum. And in 1958, these trends prompted a group of Wausau businessmen to establish a new manufacturing company to produce aluminum windows.
Engineered Curtainwall, Inc. had its offices in Wausau, above the Steffke Freight Company on Bellis Street, but decided to locate its manufacturing in a business park being set up in Antigo, in part due to the tax break offered the new company while it was finding its footing.
[Interior of EC photos to go here]
Over the next five years, the company had found that footing. It had grown to employ 50 people and was doing over a million dollars in business annually. And at this point, the owners announced that they felt it was time to relocate elsewhere. They approached the Town of Weston about moving there, but ultimately decided to move to the new Schofield Business Park, citing its easier access to water.1
^Inside Engineered Curtainwall's Schofield faciltiy, 1965
The news that the plant was relocating prompted a strike by the workers in Antigo, who had unionized under Machinists Lodge 2131 in 1960. In a statement released by the union, they condemned the move by their “’runaway’ employer,”
“Five years ago the company decided to commence operations in Antigo, but only after receiving some liberal concessions from the City of Antigo. Employes [sic] were hired at a minimum wage, but were promised good wages and a secure future with the company as it progressed… Now the company has again sought and received concessions in another community. In so doing it is running away from its obligations to its employes [sic] and the community.”
Furthermore, the Union representatives claimed that the company was using the opportunity to relocate as a way to rid itself of having to deal with the Union altogether, as they made it clear that the new employees at the new facility would not be unionized (would have to decide for themselves), and “[refused] to continue the contract at the new plant, with the pious claim that it would not be proper for the company to now decide for its employees in its new plant what union shall represent them.” The change in facilities was being treated like a new company, despite being the “same company, the same product, the same stockholders, the same category of customers, etc.”
For their part, the company of Engineered Curtainwall also appeared to blame the move on the relationship with the Union, although the specifics of their “lengthy statement” was not covered in the newspapers. But even with widespread support for the strike by the public and labor groups (including those in Wausau), the company quietly continued the move. And by the end of the year, Engineered Curtainwall, Inc. had completed its move to Schofield.
^Schofield facility of Engineered Curtainwall, from August 1964
Three years later, in 1966, the control of the company was purchased by a group of men from Hudson, Michigan, including Alfred (Jack) and Alexander Gordon of what was then Purpose Extruded Aluminum Company (PEACO). The Gordons integrated Engineered Curtainwall as a division of PEACO, and four years later, decided to relocate their company to Schofield. PEACO, or Gordon Aluminum as it has been known in the last decade, has moved towards other products besides windows, although it did have success with its Alumitech Window division between 1992 and 2004, when the line was sold to Wausau Window and Wall.
[1] “Plant Employing 50 May Move to Town of Weston” WDH (24 July 1963), 1; “Antigo Firm Plans Move To Schofield C of C Area” WDH (2 August 1963) 1.