St. Louis Unions Join Forces to Tackle Shocking Rates of Suicide for Workers
Date Posted: December 11, 2025
Posted In: Discussion, Featured, Organizations, Workforce,
From The Seattle Times: Among the 16 building trades in the St. Louis area, a network is forming to focus on the mental health of workers.
The increasingly critical effort aims to draw out a group with a reputation for being tough as nails — and tight-lipped about personal problems.
The motivation to join forces can be found in statistics. Construction workers have the second-highest suicide rate of any industry, behind mining. Substance abuse is twice as common as it is among the general U.S. population, and overdose deaths occur 18 times more often than jobsite fatalities. Almost everyone with experience in the industry has lost a friend or co-worker.
Dave Scott, with the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 3, had a buddy die by suicide 13 years ago.
“Not knowing how to help somebody is a hard thing,” he said.
Over the past decade, national organizations, including the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a nonprofit called the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention, have funded research and shared resources to help with mental health and addiction among builders.
In the St. Louis area, piecemeal efforts have been underway among the 35,000 members of the building trades, from partnering with universities and publishing studies to holding seminars and giving away gun locks. Now, the unions are teaming up to establish their own nonprofit: the St. Louis Building Trades Wellness Coalition.
“We’ve been getting all these people in a room who are doing something,” said Scott, Local 3’s business representative. “Many hands make light work.”
Construction workers face unique circumstances that put them at higher risk of self-harm, experts say. The industry is about 90% male, and men are more likely than women to experience addiction and to die by suicide. The career is physically demanding; on-the-job injuries can sometimes be a first step toward the overuse of painkillers.
Schedules are stressful and unpredictable, with tight deadlines fueling long days and weeks — which are often followed by stretches of unemployment.