October 25, 1941: Mrs. James A. McCabe Attacked in NYC Allegedly for Buying Non-union-made Caskets

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA

October 25, 1941: “Final Warning: Don’t Buy Boyertown” read a note left by the assailants who administered a brutal beating to Mrs. James A. McCabe in New York City. They had entered her place of employment, the Cathedral Funeral Chapel, telling her they wanted to arrange for a funeral.

While she was asking routine questions about the deceased, she was felled by a blow to her head which bruised her eye and nose and left her unconscious for two hours. The Casket Makers’ Union has been picketing many funeral parlors in New York that did not buy union-made caskets and Mrs. McCabe has been buying Boyertown caskets for many years.

The Boyertown Burial Casket Company is a non-union plant and the Casket Makers’ Union recently lost a NLRB election to organize them 277 to 214. Union officials deny that nay union men were implicated in the attack.

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