Chapter 25
In November of 1972 I informed
the principals of both schools where I was employed that, due to health
reasons, namely a weakness in my vocal cords, as substantiated by the
accompanying letter from my doctor, I would be forced to resign my teaching
position as of the end of 1972. I regretted to have to give up my profession
and I was especially distressed by the fact that I had to stop teaching
in the middle of the school year, but I saw no possibility at all to
do otherwise.
At the end of December
the school organized a farewell party at which I was presented with
a five hundred dollar cheque and Gina with a bouquet of roses. The teachers,
in the name of The Federation, also presented me with gifts during a
farewell evening. Tile hardest event was the parting from my students,
who also organized some parties in the classrooms. Even the afternoon
school presented me with a gold Omega watch. Fortunately it was the
winter break and I had some time to recover from all the emotional excitement.
On January 2, 1973,
at seven A.M. I presented myself for work at Matador Converters (the
two firms, Matador Inc. and Wadding Converters, were amalgamated into
Matador Converters). I continued to do so until the end of April 1993,
the day I retired from active management of the business.
For the first week
of my new job I was kept busy by taking inventory, with the help of
some workers carried over from the old companies, to know what we had
in stock. This was a learning process to familiarize myself with the
different materials used in the business: fibers, resins, chemicals,
linings, backings, threads of very many different colours, needles,
a multitude of spare parts for different machines; there were literally
hundreds of different items. We had no computers in those days and since
I became responsible for replenishing our stock (spending many millions
of dollars every year) and keeping the stock at the right level year
round, I developed a simple manual system of running stock, which enabled
me to be up-to-date. It required a great deal of effort to learn about
the qualities of hundreds of materials and parts and their applications,
to be up-to-date on every new item that the market had to offer and
above all, to learn how to purchase the best quality available for the
best price possible.
My second task was
to be in charge of the pricing of the many hundreds of items which we
produced and sold to hundreds of different customers. The same item
could be sold for different prices to different customers, depending
on quantity, distances to deliver, credit worthiness and special deals.
To perform this task properly I had to be up-to-date on cost of production,
direct and indirect expenses and cost of raw materials, as well as to
know each customer for whom the price was made. Every time my expenses
went up the pricing had to be adjusted upwards. Because of competition
and seasonal needs of our customers, the timing for a price increase
had to be carefully chosen and irrefutably justified. Every time there
was a price change, my telephone did not stop ringing, because the customers
demanded an explanation for the change, a postponement or a deal. We
had to be flexible: nothing was done strictly by the book. Although
I took charge of these tasks within a couple of months of starting my
job, I needed several years to perfect my skills. As long as my father
was actively involved in the business, which was till 1985, I never
made a major decision without his approval. (Although my father retired
officially some two and a half years later, I was really fully in charge
of the business since 1985).
The third task involved
the expansion of the business. Although our partner was thoroughly informed
of all aspects of the business, when it came to expansion which involved
large sums of money, our partner had to be in full agreement with us.
We had to purchase two properties which was done by my father. One of
the buildings, (we called it the "Gigi" plant), of about 20000
ft. was located perpendicular to our wadding plant; the other, the Winfield
Lumber Yard, was located between the quilting plant and the wadding
plant. We had to undertake a total of nine construction projects in
the course of nine years, all of them were planned and supervised and
brought to completion by me. Two of the projects were intended to modify
and fortify existing structures, the other seven projects increased
the area of our plants by about 100,000 ft. almost doubling its size
to the present area of 227,000 ft. In addition to the expansion, there
were numerous projects of repairs and modifications.
The company started
with some thirty-five quilting machines. By 1989 we had seventy.
The company started with four old wadding machines and has now
seventeen, of which only three are the original and they were completely
remodeled. Three of these seventeen machines are running in Winnipeg,
where we opened a branch in 1979.
We bought a building
of about 28,000 ft with some five acres of adjacent land for future
expansion. All of these investments in Montreal and in Winnipeg were
generated by the business. I was directly involved in the decision making,
negotiations with the sellers of the machines, with the electricians,
ventilation companies, plumbers, gas equipment companies, who were needed
for the installation of the machines. The cost of these machines amounted
to anywhere from about a million to about three-and-a-half millions
per machines. In the course of the years we acquired a very skilled
group of mechanics and electricians which enabled us to do a lot of
work by ourselves. We were also able to build many parts of the machines
ourselves thereby effecting substantial savings to the company.
My fourth task was
to handle our Company's requests for government assistance for our various
projects. Although I had professional help in this line of work, I had
to supply the ideas and the information, as well as a lot of the paper
work. The results were quite rewarding, about a million dollars contributed
by the federal, provincial and municipal governments for the purchase
of new machinery and the construction of new buildings. The complete
project involved an expense of about seven million dollars in the course
of about five years.
I also had a private
assignment given to me by my father, to handle our real estate investments.
There were five properties we owned. Three of them had about 50,000
ft., one - 37,000 ft. and a small one of 12,000 ft. I handled the properties
for about eight years and then we sold them with my urging, one by one.
Besides the accounting work, collecting rent, paying mortgages and taxes,
there was a constant flow of repairs, roofing, floors, windows, doors,
but mostly heating and plumbing. Sometimes there were problems requiring
much attention for an extended period of time, as when the furnace stopped
working and the pipes froze and the water burst and flooded two floors,
requiring extensive repairs and much work to settle the insurance claims.
The tenants always had some complaints and even though I tried hard
to satisfy their needs, it was still a constant irritant. So, I was
happy when we finally got rid of our real estate business. I must add
that we were fortunate to divest ourselves of our real estate holdings
at a nice profit, just before the slump started.
My father put his
talents to work making sure that our sales were increasing steadily,
every year. In the course of fifteen years the sales increased five
fold; the collections and the extension of credit which were also under
my father's control were very good, so that the losses due to bad debts
were minimal. Within twelve years since we bought the business, we were
free of debt, despite the very substantial increase in real estate,
in new machinery, in rolling stock and many smaller items.
By the mid-seventies
my duties at Matador became so numerous that I could not cope any more
on my own. We hired a young man by the name of David Helter, who became
my very valuable assistant. He also managed to affect substantial savings
in our energy expenses (which amounted to several hundred thousand dollars
per year), in our purchased transportation costs, especially the railway
lines (we had two railway lines coming directly into our Montreal plant
and one line into our Winnipeg plant). David took care of all the statistical
work which was of tremendous help to me. I hardly made a move without
involving David.
In the early eighties,
the workers at Matador tried to organize a Union. The struggle lasted
for several years. The Union managed to recruit a substantial amount
of members, but not a majority. They wanted to demonstrate to our workers
that they could be better protected and so they launched a multitude
of grievances against the company. More than a dozen of those grievances
ended up in court. I hired a good labour lawyer and the two of us devoted
a great deal of time and effort in preparing our cases for the court
hearings. We managed to win all the cases. By now, some two years later,
the Union decided to put the matter to a vote. If the majority of the
workers would vote to accept the Union, they would be accredited. The
vote, which took place in our plant, under government supervision, was
a great victory for us. Only thirty percent voted for the Union.
This was actually
the second attempt for accreditation. The first took place before the
amalgamation, when my father was already managing the company. On their
third attempt in 1988 the Union finally succeeded in gaining a majority
in their membership drive. We began negotiating at the end of 1988 for
our first collective agreement.
The Union demands
were totally unrealistic and even with mediation and conciliation the
gap between us was too large to be bridged. In March of 1989 the workers
went out on strike which lasted about five months and resulted in substantial
losses to both sides. When we resumed work, I came to the conclusion
that it would be best to close the quilting plant, which was not very
profitable even before the strike. It should be noted that it was the
quilting plant which generated most of our income in the seventies.
However, in the eighties, the quilting plant began a slow but steady
decline, while the wadding plant which began its expansion already in
the seventies, was now, in the eighties, our main source of income.
During the strike,
the Winnipeg plant performed a vital task in helping us to overcome
our loses. I organized a night shift in Winnipeg which was producing
goods strictly for our Montreal customers. Although the shipping costs
from Winnipeg to Montreal were quite high (especially since our material
is light and voluminous), we still managed to make a profit and to compensate
for our Montreal losses. Since the strike involved a great deal of tension,
abusive language, picketing and even violence, my whole outlook on business
has changed, to the extent that I was now seriously convinced, that
since I was able to make a living without working at Matador, I should
prepare for retirement.
My last important
project at Matador was directed at transferring my duties and preparing
my successor for a complete takeover. It was clear to me at that point
that the overall authority for managing Matador, will have to be transferred
to Stuart Zuckerman, George's nephew, who exhibited a better aptitude
for the task. Although I felt uneasy in the last year and a half before
my retirement because I relinquished most of my duties together with
my authority, I did not feel at all uneasy about my performance at Matador
in the course of my twenty years of hard, conscientious work. I remember
that the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Guy Tardiff, who paid
a visit to Matador in April of 1985 praised our achievements as a significant
contribution to the economy of Quebec. I still have the photograph taken
of the two of us on that day. I was also proud and happy to receive
a certificate of appreciation from the City of Montreal which
reads as follows:
There is one sad note,
which caused me a great deal of sorrow: my inability to work in harmony
and to communicate normally with my son in-law, Neil Glazer. I am stating
this fact because it eventually resulted in my being forced to accept
the wishes of my partner, George Zuckerman, to dismiss Neil from Matador,
about one year after my retirement. Although I tried to find some solution
to this problem between Neil and me in the course of the first three
years, I eventually gave up my struggle to overcome this difficulty,
simply by ignoring him, hoping thereby to gain peace of mind. This was
my mistake, because when the problem finally exploded and reached
its inevitable conclusion, my peace of mind exploded as well. The result
of Neil's dismissal was to have a devastating effect on the entire family
and will last for a very long time. It might never heal properly for
as long as I live.
There was another
factor which hastened my retirement: the death of my dear father, of
blessed memory, on March 17, 1991. My father was my guide, my advisor,
a model businessman, from whom I learned a great deal by observing his
activities. Unfortunately, he became afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.
By 1987 his behaviour was already affected, but he continued to live
at home under my mother's care. The disease progressively worsened and
two years later his behaviour became much more difficult to cope with.
Fortunately for us, by then the Grinbergs (Sophie Golts' parents) were
already occupying the upper floor of my parents duplex and we made arrangements
for Mr. Grinberg to spend four hours per day looking after my father's
needs. The following year we increased the time to eight hours per day,
but my father's health deteriorated so much that we simply could not
manage to control him at home.
My mother, who was
by then eighty-three years old, could not cope with such a terrible
burden. In mid-1990, my father developed a serious infection on his
arm and had to be hospitalized from July 15th till August 8th. During
this period of time I was actively engaged in the search of a suitable
home which specializes in the care of people like my father. It was
quite difficult to be accepted in such a home and it was even more difficult
for my mother and I to agree to such an arrangement. After his release
from the hospital on August 8th, my father was placed in the Feldman
home on Bourret Avenue. The location was important, so as to enable
my mother to visit my father by simply walking to the Feldman home.
My father was never happy at the Feldman home, although he did receive
the proper care and supervision. The only thing he approved of was the
fact that Mr. Grinberg kept him company, went with him for walks, gave
him his shower and shave, helped him dress and undress during
eight hours, every day. The only time he was happy was when I came to
visit him, or Gina, my mother and other members of the family.
Although he could
communicate in a coherent manner, especially with the family, he was
often very confused, belligerent, fighting imagined demons, even physically
lashing out. For the last few years he had to be constantly sedated.
Unless I was badly sick I visited my father every single day: whether
at my parents home or at Feldman's. While he was hospitalized I used
to come around most meal times, to make sure that he was properly fed,
which he could not do on his own, sometimes other family members would
replace me. My father was especially happy to see Gina, whom he loved
dearly. While he lived in the Feldman home, on several occasions we
had to rush him to the hospital because we suspected another infection.
During his first hospital stay, he became infected with pneumonia which
lasted for about two weeks. On October 8th he was again hospitalized
with another infection and he stayed there until October 22nd, when
he returned to the Feldman home. In every other case he was discharged
after a day's observation, with the proper treatment to continue at
home. Every time he was taken to the hospital I spent a full day with
him until all the tests were completed, the diagnosis made and treatment
prescribed.
In March of 1991,
about half a year after we placed him in the Feldman home, he became
noticeably ill, his temperature was up and he was very inactive. Mr.
Feldman rushed him to the hospital and I came along. He was checked
and treated after many hours of waiting and placed into the intensive
care unit. There they attached a machine to his body to monitor his
heart. The doctor diagnosed the problem as a mild heart attack. Some
three days later there was a noticeable improvement, his temperature
was normal, I could communicate with him fairly well and the doctor
ordered the removal of the monitoring machine. I went home happy, hoping
that he would soon return to the Feldman home.
When he was at the
Feldman home during the winter, I brought him home on several occasions
for lunch. He was so happy to be there, to see the family and especially
his great-grandsons, Aron and Zachary. So on my way home from the hospital
I was planning to bring him to us as soon as possible. That evening,
Dafna called us from Ottawa to announce her engagement to Simon Kahn.
We were so happy with the wonderful news and planned to tell my father.
The next morning around 7:30 A.M., as I was getting ready to go to the
hospital, the phone rang. A doctor called from the hospital, informing
me that my father passed away, due to heart failure. Gina and I rushed
to the hospital. Mr. Grinberg was there too. He told me that he came
too late. Mr. Feldman came and helped me to make the necessary funeral
arrangements. I was in a state of shock and I will always be grateful
to Mr. Feldman for his kind help and support. I had to tell my mother
the sad news. It was terribly heartbreaking to watch my mother in her
sorrow.
Out of respect for
my father we closed the plant, so that almost all the workers came to
the funeral. There were many people present who knew him well, respected
him and many who loved him. I never missed anybody so badly as I miss
my father. Hardly a day goes by that I do not think about him. Every
time I face a problem, I mentally ask his advice. "What would you
have done in such a situation?" He was the source of my strength
at Matador. Since he has been gone, I have felt unable and unwilling
to continue without him.