PRIDE of St. Louis, Inc.

As seen in the St. Louis Business Journal April 29, 2002

PRIDE helps unemployed build skills for the future

BY GIL STUENKEL

Efforts to help unemployed and underemployed minorities find careers in construction have taken another step forward as recommendations made by the St. Louis Inner City Competitive Alliance are put into action.

The alliance, funded by Civic Progress and the Danforth Foundation, was established in September 2000 in response to a study conducted by PRIDE for the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association. PRIDE, the nation’s first and oldest (founded in 1972) voluntary construction labor-management group, identified construction as one of four job clusters that offer the greatest careers potential to the underemployed and unemployed.

Following up on the PRIDE study, the ICCA interviewed minority job seekers, disadvantaged workers, construction industry supervisors and others. The ICCA identified a number of real and perceived career obstacles faced by disadvantaged job seekers, including language barriers, transportation problems, misconceptions and lack of understanding about the demands of construction work, and lack of understanding about how to join a union and obtain training.

It is estimated that 9,000 more construction workers will be needed by 2004 for projects already planned or under way, said Kevin Cahill, chief operating officer for ICCA.

“We want to do everything we can to open up construction employment opportunities to young people who are unemployed or working under their potential at low paying jobs,” said Ed Abbett, PRIDE executive director.

The construction industry includes many “middle class jobs that can be filled by the underemployed and unemployed in the inner city if we find ways to facilitate entry by qualified workers,” said Craig Schnuck, co-chairman of the ICCA.

PRIDE is currently implementing initiatives to accomplish this. They include developing transportation plans that include bi-lingual directions, offering English as a second language classes as part of apprenticeship and advanced training, establishing mentor programs to help guide minorities in their careers, expanding diversity training to enhance understanding of cultural differences, and tailoring construction education programs and on-the-job training to facilitate entry into the building trades.

Jerry Feldhaus, executive secretary-treasurer of the Building Trades Council of St. Louis, which represents about 40,000 workers, agreed that transportation and language were genuine barriers that need to be overcome to bring more African-American, Hispanic and Bosnian workers on board.

He said that PRIDE is contacting students as young as in the fifth grade in an effort to make more young people aware of building trades careers. And, he added, the building trades alone spend $26 million a year on apprenticeship programs in the St. Louis area.

Most apprenticeships last four to five years, he said, and estimated about half of those who begin training complete it. “It’s hard work, can be cold, hot, dirty, and seasonal,” Feldhaus said. “But most of the good workers who are qualified and reliable have steady work.”

Among minorities and disadvantaged workers, there’s a misunderstanding of what’s required for success in a building trade career, Feldhaus said. “There’s a perception that they’re not treated fairly,” he said. “That’s just not true.”

Len Toenjes, president of the Associated General Contractors, said the PRIDE/ICCA effort should help recruitment, build interest and help the image of building trade careers.

However, he said, sometimes people become interested who don’t have the life skills or cognitive abilities to be successful, and they run into problems.

“People get interested in the building trades, then find out the level of math skills, spatial abilities, etc. that are needed. There’s a technical side needed – a combination of brains and brawn,” Toenjes said.

AGC operates the Construction Careers Center High School in Wellston, a charter school. Toenjes said that after the first two years, the school has had success in placement and retention.

The center’s instruction includes the building trades, drafting, architecture and engineering. “The unions and trades do a good job with training. We need to make sure young people and non-traditional workers are ready to enter,” those programs, he said.

Toenjes also noted that although more than 4,000 are enrolled in building trades union apprenticeship programs, the public vocational schools graduated only about 30 building trades students in St. Louis city and county last year. “That’s a huge shortfall. We need to graduate 10 times” that many, he said.

AGC as an association, and many of its 450 member companies, have worked hard at career days, career fairs and other programs to make more people aware of careers in construction, said Toenjes.

Now that action plans are in place to address many of the ICCA recommendations, Abbett said, “with a better understanding of the real and perceived barriers from the perspective of the disadvantaged job seekers, we can evaluate existing construction programs and devise more effective ones.”

Gill Stuenkel is a St. Charles free-lance writer.