PRIDE Honors Industry Contributors

Amid a rancorous political climate nationally, PRIDE of St. Louis, Inc. paid tribute to local labor and business cooperation at its annual construction industry awards luncheon. The labor-management organization honored three construction leaders and one company for advancing St. Louis as the best place to build. The event attracted more than 270 people.

Noting that PRIDE will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, PRIDE Executive Director Jim LaMantia said the nation could learn much from the St. Louis construction industry's tradition of labor-management cooperation. "PRIDE co-founder Dick Mantia once described it thusly: ‘In the end, the things we had in common were more powerful than all of our differences,'" said LaMantia.

LaMantia pointed to recent collaboration by labor and business that helped attract British car maker Emerald Automotive to St. Louis, provided incentives to energize the local homebuilding industry and $108 million in funding for the two largest construction projects in downtown St. Louis.

Award recipients included:

• Edward Jones Co., which earned the PRIDE Industry Impact Award;
• Jim Frey, a senior vice president of general contractor Alberici Group, Inc., who received the Al Fleischer Management Award.;
  
• Nathan Broccard, retired former business manager for Operating Engineers Local 513, who received the Dick Mantia Labor Award; and
  
• Edward Hassinger, district engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, who received the Joe Rinke Owner Award.
  

PRIDE, founded in 1972, is an acronym for Productivity and Responsibility Increase Development & Employment. For more than 35 years, PRIDE has worked to maintain harmony and build cooperation among St. Louis area AFL-CIO construction craft workers, contractors, construction buyers, architects, engineers and suppliers.

Columns