St. Louis Building Trades’ John Stiffler, SEIU Healthcare’s Laura Barrett honored by the Ancient Order of Hibernians

By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief

St. Louis – John Stiffler, executive secretary-treasurer of St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council, was honored as Labor Leader of the Year, and Laura Barrett, Missouri campaign coordinator for SEIU Healthcare, was named Civic Leader of the Year at the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) St. Louis Chapter’s 22nd Annual “Hoses, Handcuffs and Hard Hats” Judge James Dailey Wahl Memorial gala March 7, at the IBEW Local 1 hall in St. Louis.

AOH is the oldest and largest Irish Catholic lay organization in America.

The annual event is dedicated to fire fighters, law enforcement officers, public safety personnel and union members killed in the line of duty since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America.

“It was  great  honor to receive the Labor Leader of the Year,” Stiffler said. “To follow in the footsteps of those union leaders before me, I’m truly humbled.”

The master of ceremonies was Tom Wahl, son of Judge Wahl, the highly respected pro-Labor lawyer and St. Louis Municipal judge who died in 2016 after a battle with leukemia.

Proceeds from this year’s event benefited BackStoppers, the St. Louis Labor Council’s $5 for the Fight fund and the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society Gateway Chapter.

The program also included a display of Irish dancing by the youngsters of the Meghan Torno School of Irish Dance, and an emotional, moving rendition of “O Danny Boy” by NFL Hall of Famer Jackie Smith.

POLICE OFFICER HONOREES
• City Police Officer of the Year Detective Mitchel Simpher.
• Retired St. Louis City Police Lt. Tim McDonough.
• St. Louis County Police Officer of the Year Detective. Joe Womack.

FIRE FIGHTER HONOREES
• City Fire Fighter of the Year Battalion Chief Russ Richer.
• St. Louis County Fire Fighter of the Year Dave Schmidt.

GRAND MARSHALS
Also honored were grand marshals of the AOH St. Patrick’s Day Parade Jim Mohan, Jim Sheerin and Tim Wiese.

STIFFLER
Stiffler joined Heat & Frost Insulators Local 1 in 1978. He was elected a business representative in 2000. He was elected business manager of Local 1 in 2009, a position he held until 2017, when he was elected executive-secretary treasurers of the Building Trades council.

He also serves as an executive board member of the Missouri AFL-CIO, Missouri State Building & Construction Trades, the St. Louis Labor Council, and St. Louis Guns ’N Hoses.

Stiffler also is president of the St. Louis Port Council, a member of the board of the St. Louis City Police Athletic League and a member of the St. Louis County Building Commission.

He also serves on the Amalgamated Bank Labor Advisory Board and the Busey Bank Labor Advisory Board.

In presenting the award, master-of-ceremonies Tom Wahl said Stiffler is “considered a hard-working, detail-oriented leader willing to listen to all, but staunchly defending the rights of union men and women and their families represented by Building & Construction Trades Council’s 18 affiliates.

“Stiffler is an example of the new trade union leader who, while representing past tradition, encourages an understanding that change is inevitable and that the building trades must change to be an effective for their members in the 231st Century,” Wahl said.

BARRETT
Barrett, who holds a Master of Social Work degree, has fought for justice as a Labor and community organizer for more than 30 years. She is currently the Missouri campaign coordinator for Service Employees International Union Healthcare (SEIUHC), where she is working closely with a newly-formed St. Louis Board of Aldermen committee examining the long-term care crisis in nursing homes.

Barrett joined SEIUHC right before the Covid-19 pandemic and helped promoted the union’s platform of PPE and hazard pay. She is a mentor to member leaders, and helps them by organizing media events, rallies, lobby days and job actions.

SEIUHC recently won funding for nursing home worker training in St. Louis and is proud to partner with the Missouri AFL-CIO on this important pilot program.

Barrett worked with local faith and Labor leaders in St. Louis to created the nationally lauded “Missouri Model” Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), which the Missouri Department of Transportation used on Interstate 64 improvements. The model opened union jobs in construction to low-income people, minorities and women. At the end of the four-year I-64 rebuild 27 percent of the work hours were performed by impacted workers, many of whom became journeymen.

She founded and directed the highly successful House Comes First coalition, which defeated a federal rent increase for public house and preserved project-based Section 8 and public housing.

She headed the Missouri Public Interest Research Group (MoPIRG) and consulted with or worked for a number of organizations including Jobs with Justice, Just Moms STL, United Congregations of the Metro East (UCM), Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

Nationally, she directed the Chicago-based Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), the Washington D.C.-based Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) and a successful campaign for a National Housing Trust Fund. Barrett also worked for the Center for Community Change and the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.