History and Background of PDC #2

Painters District Council No. 2, first formed in St. Louis, MO in the year 1889, had four local unions affiliated with it by the year 1901. At that time, the Council's affiliates consisted of locals 23, 46, 115 and 137. By 1902, Glaziers Local #513 and Paperhangers Local #341 had affiliated, along with Auto and Coach Painters Local #204. (Locals 23 and 341 many years later merged to become Paperhangers and Fresco Painters Local Union #2341). The present affiliates of the Council are Locals 46, 115, 137, 604, 774, 980, 1156, 1185, 1199, 1265, 1292, 2341 and Glaziers Local #513. In 1901, the members of the recently formed District council voted to ask for increases in wages to 45 cents an hour to become effective in a new contract beginning March 15, 1902. The employers turned down the proposed increase and a strike was called which lasted ten weeks and 4 days, until June 26, 1902. When finally settled, the new scale for Union members was brought up to $3.60 per day. There was another one-week strike necessary to improve wages and conditions in 1913. Wages and conditions continued to improve because of the establishment of the union and by 1918 the scale was up to 75 cents an hour and the employers were to furnish increased protection to men on stage work by having a life line to each man or a railing on the stage. In 1924, a prolonged strike was necessary in order to establish the five-day, forty-hour workweek. Painters District Council No. 2 was the first building trades union in St. Louis to attempt to get the shortened workweek. There was a long, hard struggle because the employers realized that if the painters got the 40-hour workweek, this practice would soon spread to the other building trades. Our pioneer action ended in success in 1927 with a five-day, forty-hour workweek and a wage scale of $11.50 per day. The shortened workweek had prolonged the work season making employment more continuous for more workers, and by 1929 the practice had spread to eighty percent of our Brotherhood's members. The depression of the 30s hit the Painters hard, as it did all segments of society and some of the largest and strongest of the building trades locals were either broke or in bad financial straits. We were very fortunate during the winter of 1933-34 in putting approximately 1,250 of our members to work for 17 weeks on a closed shop agreement at the prevailing wage scale of $1.25 an hour on civil Works Administration Projects. This was in the dead of winter in the midst of the depression and relieved much of the poverty and distress of our members. A period of approximately 55 years elapsed before another strike to better wages and conditions was necessary. In the earliest days of the District Council, Minutes and roll call of delegates were written in longhand in a ledger book by the secretary of the council. Some of these archives from the 1890s have been bound and are preserved in the District Council office. Painters District council No. 2 is now composed of delegates and alternate delegates from each of the affiliated local unions. They meet on the third Thursday of each month at the Painters Building, 2501 59th Street, St. Louis, MO, to take care of the business of the Council.

Council Headquarters Over the Years The first meeting place of the District Council was at Spellbrink's Hall at 1319 Franklin Ave. In 1923, the Association purchased an old church and rectory located on the southeast corner of Grand and Page Blvds. The Painters remodeled these buildings and called them home for 22 years. During the late 1940s, the Council Office was at Grand and Sullivan, across from the old Sportsman's Park. On December 15, 1950, the District council moved to its new home located at 2715 North Union Blvd. The new building cost about $200,000. It had offices and four meeting halls on one floor and a large rathskeller in the basement. In 1959, while waiting for its new building to be finished, the Council operated out of the Old Electric Workers Building at Boyle and Gibson. In 1960, the Painters District council moved to its present building at 2501 59th Street. Within the last five years, the three meeting halls and the entry hall on the ground floor have been remodeled.

PDC No. 2 Apprenticeship History In 1937, the Fitzgerald Act came into effect, making the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training a permanent agency of the U.S. Department of Labor. Thus began the first established Painters Apprentice Program with Martin Joern as the instructor and class was held on Saturday mornings at the Hadley vocation School located at 3405 Bell just east of Grand Avenue. At the end of World War II, Emil (Skip) Okertich became an instructor, along with Martin Joern in 1946 to 1947, to help out with the overflow of men returning from WWII. Martin Joern was the apprentice instructor for 27 years and retired from teaching in 1964. The apprentice school moved from Hadley to O'Fallon Technical Center in 1956 and in 1978 the school was moved to the basement of the Union Hall and stayed there till the spring of 1984. In the spring of 1984, the apprenticeship and journeyman training Fund purchased the building at 2151 59th Street just two blocks north of the union Hall where the school is still presently located. The Apprentice Program has been a success because of those who dedicated themselves to teaching others their profession. Our apprentice program in the past has won many awards and ribbons. In 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 at the Southern States we won the first place G.K. Fritz, Jr. Award for the most outstanding panel in 19 categories and in 1986 we won first, second, third place in the G.K. Fritz Jr. Award, which makes our apprentice school the only school to hold this honor. In 1989 at the 26th general convention, we won the President's Award and in 1990, we won the Patterson Award for having the most first, second and third place winners. In 1987, we entered the live drywall contest for the first time, which is a contest held for tapers. In 19xx we won first place and in 1989 we won third place in the live drywall contest. In the last six years, we have won 33 first place ribbons, 19 second place ribbons and 18 third place ribbons for a total of 70 winners which is a tribute to our instructors. There were not too many records kept from us in earlier years of the Apprentice Program from which to draw on for history. On the first of January 1977, the Apprenticeship and Training Declaration of Trust was amended to be known as the Painters District council No. 2 Apprenticeship and Journeyman Training Trust. The trust designed to provide a training program for apprentices and for the retraining or refresher training journeymen and related programs. The Apprenticeship and Journeyman Training Fund of $.04 an hour was established in December 1977. The present $XX and hour was established in November 1982.

Journeymen Upgrading Classes Teachers The following are the upgrading classes that have been taught to the Journeyman: Paper and Vinyl Hanging, taping, woodgraining, color mixing and matching, spray equipment class, blue print reading, marbleizing, spray painting.

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