PRIDE of St. Louis, Inc.

NEWS RELEASE October 10, 2005

For more information, contact Steve Houston at 314/721-2828.

PRIDE of St. Louis Exhorts Construction Workers to Maintain High Levels of Productivity and Safety on the Job

PRIDE Hosts Luncheon for 300-Plus Workers at St. John’s Mercy Healthcare Project in Creve Coeur, Mo.

In the first of several planned job site luncheons, PRIDE Executive Director Jim LaMantia urged more than 300 construction workers to maintain the highest levels of productivity and safety at a $100 million hospital project for St. John’s Mercy Healthcare in Creve Coeur, Mo.

ST. LOUIS – Leaders of the region’s union construction industry urged workers to give them the tools they need to sell St. Louis as the “best place to build” in the first of a series of job site luncheons planned in coming months by PRIDE of St. Louis Inc., the region’s venerable labor-management organization. More than 300 construction workers advancing a $100 million hospital project for St. John’s Mercy Healthcare in Creve Coeur, Mo. attended the event. They were urged to maintain high levels of productivity and safety on the job as a means of attracting future development dollars to the region.

“Give me the tools to bring more construction projects here,” exhorted Jim LaMantia, executive director of PRIDE. “We have the most highly skilled workforce in the nation. Competitive pressures dictate that we must also sustain high levels of productivity and safety. The ability of the St. Louis union construction worker to consistently deliver projects on time, within budget and safely is indispensable to our team effort to increase economic development and bring more jobs to the region.”

PRIDE is currently engaged in an initiative to have every construction worker OSHA 10 certified.

LaMantia was joined by PRIDE Labor Co-Chair Jerry Feldhaus, representing the St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, and PRIDE Owner Co-Chair Richard J. Schaefer, representing the buyers of construction.

McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. is general contractor for the project at St. John’s that is scheduled for completion in summer 2006.

PRIDE, founded in 1972, is an acronym for Productivity and Responsibility Increase Development & Employment. It is the nation’s first and oldest voluntary construction labor-management organization. For more than 30 years, PRIDE has worked to maintain harmony and build teamwork among St. Louis area AFL-CIO construction craft workers, contractors, construction buyers, architects, engineers and suppliers.

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Editor’s note:

PRIDE is headquartered in Clayton, Mo. (63103).