St. Louis Volunteers
Wire Habitat House

IBEW Local 1 members and contractors in front of the Habitat for Humanity
house the St. Louis Quality Connection helped to wire.

Nearly 20 members of IBEW Local 1 in St. Louis joined more than 300 other volunteers to help complete a five-bedroom Habitat for Humanity house.

But this was not a typical site-built affair. Much of this two-level ranch-style house was constructed in a nearby mall. In early March, IBEW members went to the St. Louis Mills mall to perform some of the initial wiring. Two weeks later, after the house was transported to its site 12 miles away in Hillsdale, the workers from J. Bathe Electric, MR Bathe, Beach Electric and Dickherber Electric returned to finish the work.

"It was pretty cool actually having a house built in the mall, with people able to watch us work," said Matt Lampe, Local 1 business representative, speaking for the IBEW/National Electrical Contractors Association St. Louis Electrical Connection. "Habitat for Humanity got quite a few people to sign up from the publicity."

The high-profile volunteer work helped reinforce the union’s presence in residential construction, one segment of the industry in which nonunion work is generally the rule. But in Local 1’s territory, Lampe said the union does between 60 and 70 percent of the residential work. "We’ve been going after it real hard," Lampe said.

The Mills Mall donated $60,000 to the house-building project. The 1,150-square-foot house will be the home of a single mother with seven children, Lampe said.