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St. Louis Building Trades, Employer Offer Buyer Rebates

October 3, 2011

When delegates to the 38th IBEW Convention approved a resolution calling for a national electrical construction marketing campaign, they were talking the language and following the lead of St. Louis Local 1, the area’s building trades and McBride and Sons Homes, the nation’s largest union-organized homebuilder.

In a first-in-the-nation promotion called The Neighborhoods Built by Your Neighbors Program, the building trades and McBride and Sons, an employee-owned company, offered cash, from $500 to $11,000, to homebuyers for two months, ending Sept. 30.  Cash amounts were based on the sales price of the home and could be put toward closing costs or extra options (that would put more trades members to work).

Local 1 has, over the years, maintained exceptional density in residential home construction. But, since the nation’s mortgage bubble burst, two-thirds of the local’s 500 residential electricians have been out of work.

While it’s too early to assess the success of the program in additional man hours, Local 1 Business Manager Greg Booth says:

The public reaction to the homebuyer’s rebates has been overwhelming. People were showing up at McBride and Sons in big numbers and asking about the program.

Participating unions include: carpenters, painters and allied trades, plumbers and pipefitters, sheet metal workers, laborers, bricklayers, operating engineers and cement masons.

In addition to the union-funded rebate, McBride also sponsored a Union Bonus Program offering between $2,000 and $5,000 to union members in Missouri and Southern Illinois who purchase homes in the company’s numerous new residential communities.

Says John F. Eilermann Jr., chairman and CEO of McBride and Sons Companies:

This program is a testament to the relationship between St. Louis’ largest homebuilder and its union trade partners.