$5 million commitment to worker training
Of the St. Louis American
Instead of sitting on a highway in protest, more black contractors and workers could soon begin helping construct the vital thoroughfares.
Three weeks after publicly threatening to disrupt I-64 traffic in Illinois, a group of minority contractors said Tuesday it had come to a tentative agreement that will see $2 million go toward training African Americans for work on Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) projects.
According to Eddie Hasan, MOKAN executive director, there is a “minimum” commitment of $2 million over five years.
“There will also be an increase in support services of minority contractors, East St. Louis contractors in particular,” he said following a second meeting Tuesday between members of the Metro East Black Contractors Organization, Hasan and Tim Martin, IDOT secretary.
Hasan said final details of the agreement will be ironed out in future meetings and a memorandum of understanding should be signed as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for a new minority resource center in East St. Louis on June 28.
Martin said following the meeting that he wants Metro East contractors to reap benefits and that the training projects must be “tailored” to make sure they assist Metro East workers.
“We are satisfied that they have come to the table,” Hasan said.
“Our goal has not been to protest, but to get more (black) people on projects and more black companies with contracts.”
One of the details that might still need to be “worked out” is how percentages of minority inclusion are figured. Metro East Black Contractors says that just seven percent of contracts awarded for the $44 million McKinley Bridge improvement project has gone to minority contractors.
The state includes women business owners as “minority,” bringing its minority participation figure to 22 percent.
The same is true on the I-64 widening project. IDOT says 7 percent has gone to “minority” contractors, while black contractors say contracts to black firms on the $55 million project only come to 1 percent.
In 1999, more than 300 people were arrested for temporarily blocking I-70 in North St. Louis. They were protesting the lack of minority workers on highway improvements, many of which were taking place where the surrounding communities were predominantly black.
The Cornerstone Partnership training program in St. Louis County was part of a settlement with the state of Missouri. Since its creation, several dozen area residents have completed training and then been hired on construction jobs.
The 1999 agreement was reached a few days before another act of civil disobedience was planned on I-64/40 in St. Louis.
“We’re going to set up a facility (on the Metro East side) similar to the one (in Wellston),” Hasan said.
“The real satisfaction comes when we see people being hired and when we see black business owners getting more contracts.”