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Regional
Union Construction Center Board Members
(Standing left to right): Mike O'Connell, Jim LaMantia,
Ron Wiese, Terry Nelson, Jack Thomas, John Steffan, Rick
Sullivan (Sitting left to right): Kimberly Cook,
Executive Director Alan Richter, Sandra Marks Not Pictured:
Marion Hayes III and Mike Hurst |
HOW TO SUCCEED IN
CONSTRUCTION
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By
the way Terry Nelson tells it, he is responsible for the welfare
of 50,000 bellybuttons. Do the math.
Nelson sits atop the powerful St. Louis Carpenters Union with
a membership in the neighborhood of 22,000. The territory covers
the entire St. Louis region, and stretches to union members
at far reaching cities such as Marion, Ill. and Cape Girardeau,
Mo. If one calculates about 2.5 persons per family then total
coverage is about 50,000 lives. Of those, about eight to 10
percent represents minorities. The government prohibits minority
figures from being calculated. But that’s where Nelson puts
his time and energies—dealing with the welfare of minority construction
workers.
Nelson, is a hard-charging executive- secretary of the Carpenters
Union, and runs the operation from a walnut-lined office inside
the executive section of the unions’ headquarters on Hampton
Avenue.
He may be a crusty union leader from Lemay who resides in deep
South St. Louis County, but his passion for people ends up somewhere
on the near Northside. He thinks African-American workers in
construction have been getting the short end of the stick far
too long.
Likely, you won’t find Nelson nuzzling up to corporate moguls
at the Bogey Club in Ladue. Rather, this veteran with chutzpa
and commitment might be more comfortable negotiating terms on
a work job site somewhere deep inside St. Louis’ City limits.
There’s plenty of mud on his shoes.
Nelson has collared 11 civic type leaders to put up money and
launch an incubator project for the construction industry to
grow from the ashes.
“Just because we haven’t made good on the Civil Rights Bill
of 1964 doesn’t mean we can’t succeed tomorrow,” he says with
the pride of a grizzly union organizer. “We simply cannot live
on our past failures.”
Therefore, with shovel in ground, he is driving an incubator
to flourish at the Met Center in Wellston. His corporate pals
will pony up at least $500,000 per year to train minority construction
companies in this region on how to get and sustain significant
construction work.
He had questions for the reporter. “Did you know that after
Detroit and Cleveland, St. Louis is the most segregated community
in the country?” Also, did you know that 87 percent of all minority
companies fail within their first year of business?” He could
go on and on about failings. He’d rather dwell on the positives.
“With risk comes reward. We will train minority-owned company
owners on methods to succeed. We are putting together a professional
staff (executive director and three assistants) and we will
do just that (succeed),” he guarantees.
But there will be strings attached. Goals and specific benchmarks
will have to be set and met. Those who fall short will get the
ax.
Nelson claims that St. Louis had nearly 100 minority-owned construction
companies 20 years ago—and the number remaining is less than
a dozen today.
One such minority-own company is run by Charles Kirkwood, veteran
police officer who parlayed $100,000 of personal savings and
loans from relatives to carry out a dream and form his own construction
company. Midwestern Construction, for now is still standing
proud.
“Terry’s concept is very good. If it works, we will all be better
off,” says Kirkwood. Minority owners just have such a tough
time getting going. They have to borrow large sums of money,
get bonded and win important contracts. Minority owners have
to understand all the key aspects of the business,” he claims.
Yes, says Nelson. “When they (owners) come to me, I want them
to tell me what they don’t know. We need to educate and mature
our prospects. We can train anyone who is trainable. So many
of these owners know about construction, but have no idea of
how to run a business.”
He gave some for instances:
Owners have to be able to accumulate enough capital to sustain
long-term projects. The money might not come in for 90 days
or more, and they (the owners) need to meet payrolls every Friday,
provide health insurance, pay taxes, and buy tools and materials.
Creditors need to be paid in a timely manner. “This is a ballgame—three
strikes and you are out of business,” he says, mincing not a
single word.
“It can take three to five years to learn the process. We are
reducing our fees (for this program), but those in our incubator
program will have to pay for value. This whole thing is simply
not ‘a free lunch,’” he says.
What’s about to take place in Wellston is revolutionary. Economies
of scale mean facilities and services will be provided such
as a secretarial pool, phones, faxes and computers and shared
training classes and owners will have places to park their trucks
and store their tools. There’s so much interest in the leadership
position for the regional construction center (executive director’s
position) that 142 persons in the construction industry applied.
Alan Richter, formerly the regional director for St. Louis Enterprise
Center, was named executive director in October.
Nelson promises the program will not operate independent of
supervision. “It will take total daily monitoring. Those in
the program will need realistic visions of what they want.”
Nelson put together an 11-person board to oversee this innovative
project. Serving on the current board are: Kim Cook, Clayco
Construction; Sandra Marks, Washington University; John Steffen,
Pyramid Development; Mike O’Connell, Plumbers’ and Pipefitters’
Local 513; Rick Sullivan, McBride Homes; Mike Hurst, McCarthy
Construction; Marion Hayes, BRK Electric; Ron Wiese, Alberici
Construction; Jim LaMantia, PRIDE; and Terry Nelson, Carpenters’
Union.
“We’re trying to do the right thing for the community. Our minority
owners need more than just a bite of the apple,” he claims.
“We’re not going to coddle failures and we’re not going to give
up on anyone. We have powerful people behind us to make us succeed
this time,” he says.
The money to run this project will come directly from trade
unions, contractors and major companies and institutions such
as Washington University, Monsanto, and U.S. Bank. A million
dollars has already been raised and $5 million ultimately will
be needed. “I am absolutely optimistic this project will succeed,”
says Nelson.
Marion Hayes, CEO of BRK Electric is holding his cards closely.
“I really believe we are doing the right thing for minority
companies. Our company can get the work on our own and we’ve
done better than past predecessors.’ But as Hayes states clearly,
“The challenge is getting bonded, finding long-term finances
with banks and keeping vendors at bay. We will do our part to
get this incubator project off the ground. “It takes a lot of
capital to formulate business and many of our minority owners
are middle class and don’t have deep pockets. Sometimes, it’s
just the difference between first and third generation money,”
he says.
PRIDE, the unions, the owners, and the workers have a big stake
in this project. They badly need it to succeed. If they have
half the confidence and optimism of Terry Nelson, it will happen
and—for the first time in local history—minority-owned construction
companies will have significant contracts to sustain themselves
from year to year.
A
Clear Construction
Dominic Gardner, 19, is well on his way to a high-paying
job in the local construction industry. Gardner, who lives
on the near Northside close to Newstead Avenue and Delmar,
graduated the from Career Construction Academy in 2005 and
has a fulltime position with the Metro-politan Sewer District.
In fact, MSD has an investment in Gardner. They pay up to
$3,500 of his tuition each year to attend St. Louis Community
College at Forest Park. He attends Forest Park on a part-time
basis as a freshman, taking core courses in algebra and
English.
Gardner can see the forest for the trees. He has a career
path in mind, and is willing to invest his time and effort
to get there. He has an eye on an undergraduate degree,
either from Washington University in St. Louis, or the University
of Missouri at Rolla. His long-range goal is becoming a
full-fledged civil engineer.
And why shouldn’t he?
Both good with his hands, and solid in math and science,
he is applying himself to the work that he seeks. He works
40 hours per week as a vector truck operator for MSD. He
is part of a two-man crew that uses flex hoses and aluminum
pipes to clean MSD inlets throughout the city and the county.
He likes his work. “I like working for MSD. The people are
nice, the work environment is good and they pay my college
tuition,” he reasons.
When Gardner enrolled at the Construc-tion Career Center
in 2001, he had 200 classmates. By the time he graduated
four years later, there were just 35 left in that original
group. “A lot (of students) left, and others just didn’t
make it,” he says.
To make matters worse, there is a crying need for young
tradesmen in construction, especially among minority candidates.
Gwen Crimm, career counselor at the charter school helped
Gardner to sign on with MSD. “He (Dominic) has been a standout
employee with MSD. He represents a very good selling point
for our program,” she states. When asked to recommend an
outstanding graduate for work with MSD, Gardner became the
obvious choice.
Gardner has been involved with interesting projects through
his educational training. He and a fellow classmate had
to design a bridge on a computer-based cad system, coming
up with the sturdiest structure and the best cost. “We did
okay,” he says, breaking out a broad smile.
For now, Gardner is considered an apprentice with MSD. He’s
been on the job a year and day, and after two years, he
has the opportunity to go into the CSOT program (collection
system operation training).
“My approach to work and to school is that I take each one
day at a time. I try and take advantages of all the experiences
I can get and learn the skills of my trade. I guess you
can say I’ve been applying myself.”
Days of approaching education seriously got started in the
St. Louis Public School System. Moving around, he attended
Dewey, Cole, Shenandoah and Peabody Elementary Schools and
graduated from the Ralph Bunch Middle School for International
Studies.
His on-the-job training has been extensive. He’s already
studied electrical and carpentry work and he’s built homes
for the Habitat for Humanity project.
“My goal simply is to become a civil engineer. I like to
work on the auto-cad systems, and I’ve been exposed to a
lot of construction theories. He figures by his mid to late
20s, he should be well on his way. Distractions have been
few. Most of his peers are following similar career paths
and they encourage one-another to hang tough and stick with
the challenges of their programs. He’d like to stick with
MSD as a fully-trained professional.
A wise person certainly would not bet against him becoming
a big success as a civil engineer in the highly-demanding
construction industry. Check out a major construction job
site down the road, Dominic Gardner just may be the guy
who is running the whole show. |
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