Sixty-three-year-old Francis Schaufenbil helped organize his woolen mill in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1938. His local was chartered by the United Textile Workers of America (UTW) in 1939, and he was elected local president the following year. In late 1940 he helped organize the Midwestern Council of the UTW. The following year he was elected first president of the Midwestern Council, was put on the UTW staff, and was elected to the UTW Executive Council. In 1946, after a half year in the South, he was named Woolen and Worsted Director and transferred to New England; this came in the midst of the Woolen and Worsted Federation schism within UTW. In October 1957, in response to McClellan Committee investigations into the activities of the UTW's top officers, Schaufenbil was appointed acting president and secretary-treasurer. The following spring, when George Baldanzi was elected UTW president, Schaufenbil was elected secretary-treasurer. When Baldanzi died in 1972, Schaufenbil succeeded him.
