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An alliance of St. Louis-area trade organizations has scheduled a late afternoon rally in Forest Park today to launch what organizers are calling a "national public campaign" aimed at stopping a splinter electrical workers union in its tracks.

The rally serves as formal notice that a "summit" in early May failed to clear the air in a feud that has split two of the area’s major trade groups.

"It’s fair to say (the meeting) didn’t go anywhere that was useful," said International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers spokesman Jim Spellane, the national headquarters representative sent from Washington to St. Louis to help organize today’s rally.

Mediated by the national presidents of their respective unions, the May 3 meeting brought Terry Nelson, executive director of the Carpenters’ District Council of Greater St. Louis together with Stephen Schoemehl, business manager of Local 1 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

At issue was the carpenters’ decision, in 2008, to challenge the local dominance of Local 1 by forming the renegade Associated Electrical Contractors Local 57.

Nelson accuses the nation’s oldest electrical union of driving away potential building projects by escalating the price of construction across the region.

As an example, he alleged that Local 1 insists that only its members are qualified to perform mundane tasks, such as plugging electrical cords into sockets.

In late May, Local 1 members approved a pact that will reduce salary and benefits by nearly 8.5 percent in 2011.

The tension sparked by the formation of Local 57 played out under the radar screen during the first year of the new union’s existence.

The spat spilled into public view this spring with acts of vandalism to property owned by contractors affiliated with Associated Electrical Contractors and leaks of threatening messages directed at Nelson from Local 1 officials.

In the messages, Schoemehl and others noted that the U.S. Department of Labor had ordered Local 57 to take "corrective action" to resolve problems in its apprentice training program no credit check payday loans.

The disclosure of the rift prompted the St. Louis/Southern Illinois Labor Tribune to break with a long-standing tradition of not involving itself in "disagreements between unions."

In a front-page editorial on April 29, the newspaper urged "cooler heads to prevail" in an effort to bring harmony to a situation that "threatens the very existence of our highly skilled unionized construction workforce."

The 5 p.m. rally today at the World’s Fair Pavilion is seen as evidence that the schism has, instead, widened.

"I think they are using Terry Nelson as a whipping boy," Nelson said Monday. "When I trip and fall, I’m not going to blame anyone but me. If it makes them feel better and if this helps them to become more successful, then more power to them."

Spellane said the rally will address a larger issue than what has been characterized as a personality conflict between Schoemehl and Nelson.

"This goes way beyond that," he explained. "It’s one thing to compete with nonunion competition. That’s one of the realities of our situation. But when another trade gets involved, as Local 57 has, it’s beyond the pale."

Spellane said St. Louis will be the staging ground for the national campaign opposing the Associated Electrical Contractors.

Local radio spots and billboards will begin drawing attention to the IBEW’s grievances today. A day later, the campaign will expand to handbilling at construction sites across the country.

Rally speakers will emphasize what Spellane characterized as the positive relationship shared by electrical workers and union carpenters in other cities.

The exception, he said, is St. Louis — the home of what Spellane believes is the only break-off electrical workers union in the nation.

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