Throughout the pandemic, the PRIDE Industries workforce stayed on the job, providing essential services.
FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT DESPITE CHALLENGES
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s pandemic lockdowns began, California’s unemployment rate spiked from 4.3 percent to 16 percent. The economic collapse might have devastated one of the Sacramento region’s major organizations—PRIDE Industries, with 5,500 employees and revenue of $300 million. But PRIDE marched forward, bolstered by its legacy of providing essential services in areas such as facility maintenance, custodial and landscaping. About 60 percent of PRIDE’s employees are people with disabilities, but much of the workforce stayed on the job.
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“In the facilities maintenance space, workloads increased as a result of disinfecting requirements that most companies were putting into place,” says Vic Wursten, PRIDE’s chief rehabilitation officer. PRIDE is a major player in providing workers to assemble goods—a crucial service given the congestion in the global supply chain. PRIDE production crews assemble a range of essential goods. “The majority of our manufacturing relates to electronics, medical devices and food products,” Wursten says. For example, PRIDE employees help build heart-rate sensors for Heart Zones, Inc., a business run by Sacramento author, entrepreneur and professional runner Sally Edwards. “The most remarkable thing about PRIDE Industries is what they do and how well they do it,” Edwards says. Not all PRIDE employees were able to continue with regular work schedules as the pandemic spread. Some were
forced to stay home to protect personal health and safety. “Initially, when COVID hit, PRIDE Industries’ workforce with intellectual and developmental disabilities were no longer able to work due to higher risk,” Wursten says. “They’ve since been
able to return to work incrementally with modified schedules and in an environment where COVID protocol was in place.” PRIDE is a local success story. It grew from one office in an Auburn church basement to become the
