Gathering a team that climbs to the top. (roofing company Springer-Peterson)

Roofing business takes the lead in attracting labor

In dimly-lit midnight silence, a kettle of hot tar is wheeled down a long hotel corridor hotel. Workers guide the steaming black stuff through the door of a top-floor suite and push it gingerly past a baby grand piano. They lift it though an open window and onto one of the hotel's 57 roof levels.

That's how Springer-Peterson, a Lakeland re-roofing company, spent its nights during 14 months of work on the Hyatt Grand Cypress near Walt Disney World. There, Springer-Peterson's daily pressures were magnified. The four or five workers on the project not only had to stay efficient, they also had to stay quiet so as not …