Dick Mantia's bonafides include the role he played nearly 40 years ago in unifying the area's disparate trade organizations under the single umbrella known as PRIDE of St. Louis.

A co-founder of PRIDE — which presents an annual award in his name — Mantia's other credentials on behalf of the working class are such that his achievements have been formally recognized by U.S. Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan.

To refresh your memory, Donovan served in that post during the first term of the Reagan administration, 1981-85.

All this is to say that Mantia can justifiably boast of a rich and storied career in the labor movement.

It is thus worth hearing him out on the state of the St. Louis labor force as we approach the weekend set aside each September to honor American working women and men.

"It's the worst I can remember," he says.

As is its tradition, PRIDE gathered Thursday afternoon before the Labor Day holiday weekend to commemorate the movement and recognize its members along with area businesses that support the organization's efforts in the community.

Truth be told, though, the mood tilted more toward survival than celebration.

Depending on which official you speak with, the unemployment rate among the pipe fitters, sheet metal workers, electricians and other PRIDE trades currently runs anywhere from 25 to 40 percent.

And, as Mantia notes, "we don't see anything on the horizon" to indicate that the slide is going to end anytime soon.

Even those with the good fortune to find work are discovering most of the jobs aren't half as fulfilling as the projects they tackled before the recession.

Jeff Aboussie, scheduled to assume leadership of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council at the start of the new year, points to the rehabilitation of the Taum Sauk reservoir as an example of the work that not so long ago kept the trades occupied.

Now, according to carpenters and others I've spoken with the past few months, they are mostly supporting themselves with minor interior renovations, the addition of outdoor decks to existing structures and other less challenging tasks.

The economic downturn "took a while to get here so we were the last to feel the crunch," Aboussie said. "And we're going to be the last to feel the rebound."

If there is solace in numbers, the St. Louis trades can perhaps draw comfort from knowing they are not suffering alone.

"It's like this all across the country, not just St. Louis," said Mantia, recently returned from a national trades conference in Minneapolis.

Aboussie and Mantia have both been around long enough to understand that economic cycles are part of the price of doing business in the building and construction trades.

They rightly recall the recession of the early 1980s being particularly brutal.

"But that was over in six, eight months," Mantia said. "This ..."

He didn't need to say anymore.

Double-digit unemployment notwithstanding, organized labor will gather again Monday (at 9 a.m.) for the annual parade through downtown St. Louis.

Here and elsewhere, the Labor Day parade was once the centerpiece of the weekend observing American working enterprise.

As the country gradually lost sight of the holiday's original intent, the event has since become a reminder that Labor Day represents more than an end-of-summer bookend to Memorial Day. The intent, Aboussie promises, is still there.

Circumstances, though, have altered the focus.

The parade "is still a reason to gather to remember how we reached this point in the labor movement," Aboussie said. "But now we honor the people who are working while paying special attention to the unemployed workers."