Tim Rowden

The Opportunity Trust, better know for its support of charter schools, is leading the local initiative By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a $90 million national initiative expanding skilled trades training for high school students last week, but there is more – and less – to the program than meets the eye. The program...

Breakthru Beverage Teamsters show solidarity by honoring strike lines By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief Teamsters at Breakthru Beverage in St. Louis and Cicero, Ill. have extended their Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike to company operations in Kansas City, Mo., and Champaign, Ill. Teamsters at the Kansas City and Champaign locations exercised their individual legal and contractual...

Tax proposal would have devastating impact on working families By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief Area unions have sent cease-and-desist letters to the organizers behind the corporate-backed “MO Tax Relief Now” demanding the immediate removal of deceptive, AI-generated posts on their social media. The post features a fraudulent image of construction workers wearing hard hats emblazoned with...

TEAMSTERS LOCALS 688 AND 600 are on strike at Breakthru Beverage in southwest St. Louis over Unfair Labor Practices and stalled contract negotiations. U.S. Congressman Wesley Bell, Missouri State Senator Doug Beck and other state and local politicians and candidates joined strikers May 8 for an impromptu rally and joined Teamsters on the picket line....

By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief St. Louis – Guarantee Electrical, the St. Louis-based electrical contractor and IBEW Local 1 signatory, has donated $10,000 to the STL Building Trades Wellness Coalition’s efforts to address mental health, suicide prevention and addiction in the construction industry. Speaking at the Wellness Coalition’s recent meeting on recovery friendly workplaces, Guarantee CEO...

By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief St. Louis – A union member who died on the job last year and a young journeywoman who was murdered were remembered at the 46th Annual Robert O. Kortkamp Union Labor Mass and Interfaith Prayer Service on April 26 at the Shrine of St. Joseph, the patron saint of the worker,...

By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief St. Louis – Travis Barnes, Iron Workers Local 396’s business manager, was honored as Labor Leader of the Year at the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) St. Louis chapter’s 24th Annual “Hoses, Handcuffs and Hard Hats” Judge James Dailey Wahl Memorial Gala March 5 at the IBEW Local 1 hall in...

By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief Earth City, MO – Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 has seen the size of its apprentice classes double in the last few years. To meet the growing demand, Local 562 has bought a building at 3630 Corporate Trail Drive next to its union offices and existing training center, which was completed...

Workers at Skinker location voted 7-2 in favor of joining UNITE HERE Local 74; NLRB to rule on challenged ballots before certifying results By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief St. Louis – Workers at Kaldi’s Coffee’s Skinker Boulevard location have voted to form a union with UNITE HERE Local 74, appearing to win Jan. 9’s National Labor...

Facility to train hundreds of individuals a year By TIM ROWDEN Editor-in-Chief The Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) has announced plans to build an Urban Training Center on land owned by the St. Louis County Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) in Wellston, Mo. The Training Center will be located in the Plymouth...