Update, see the article concerning what I think is an ill conceived and nonsensical "protest" in today's DLN:
There were between 30 and 40 picketers who said they were from the NAACP at the construction site of the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Coatesville on First Avenue, RT 82 this morning.
Their gripe was that, “They don’t hire any local people”.
There were between 30 and 40 picketers who said they were from the NAACP at the construction site of the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Coatesville on First Avenue, RT 82 this morning.
Their gripe was that, “They don’t hire any local people”.
I asked if one of the men if he knew that it was a union construction site. He said, “They didn’t tell me that.”
I asked if they knew that over 100 local Coatesville residents had been trained at the Laborers' District Council Education and Training/Apprenticeship School in Exton, PA.
He said, “No”.
I asked him, “Who told you that they don’t hire local people?”
He said, “The NAACP.”
Whoever planned the picketing should have just asked former NAACP members or checked at Coatesville City Hall. Because:
When the plans to revitalize Coatesville were made jobs for Coatesville residents were not forgotten:
Bart Blatstein and all other developers building in Coatesville RDA land were compelled by Coatesville Redevelopment Authority contract to hire qualified Coatesville residents first; then Coatesville School District residents, then Chester County residents and finally from any area.
The construction industry, especially the high rise building construction using Steelworkers Union workers, can be dangerous and demanding. It demands trained and skilled workers.
The construction industry, especially the high rise building construction using Steelworkers Union workers, can be dangerous and demanding. It demands trained and skilled workers.
You can put demands for developers to hire Coatesville residents but if there are no residents that qualify for the jobs they will be filled by outside people.
In 2005 Coatesville community activists, religious leaders and government representatives got together and formed the “Coatesville Community Action Committee” with a plan to train willing Coatesville residents for those jobs and in a trade that they could carry all through their lives.
I participated in the 2005 meeting at Career Link in Coatesville with Andrew Dinniman (then Chester County Commissioner), community activists Elwood Dixon and Bill Washington, PA Career Link, The Laborer's District Council Education and Training School and former Coatesville City Manager Paul Janssen, Bill Washington also represented NAACP of Coatesville as its branch vice president and others 25 in all put in place an education and training program at the Laborer's District Council Education and Training facility in Exton, PA for Coatesville residents.
That education and training program has so far enrolled more than 200 Coatesville residents and residents from the Coatesville School District.
Coatesville and area residents signed up and took preliminary testing at several sessions in the Hutchinson Church, on Chestnut St. in Coatesville.
April 25, 2005 a job fair was held at CAT Brandywine where 23 trade unions were represented. They explained what each union’s role was in construction and answered questions from residents and students.
Even drug users were not turned away. If you passed the written test and failed the drug test you could still enter the program by enrolling in a drug rehabilitation program.
Upon completion those students will be and many are now ready for employment as apprentice construction workers in various union trades.
See:
Daily Local News
ADAM CIRUCCI , Staff Writer |
03/04/2005
“COATESVILLE -- Residents and city officials are planning to rebuild Coatesville’s work force from within, while rebuilding its neighborhoods from without.”
For the record no NAACP members participated in the picket. If any members were there they did not represent the NAACP they represented citizens of the local community. You really need to get your facts straight. Former NAACP members have nothing to do with what is going on today. 2004 has nothing to do with 2011. There are many skilled, trained craftsmen, and tradesmen in the local community who are not being hired for jobs with the top construction company's working in this local area. Allen Myers and Bull Dog are not hiring skilled, trained and certified minorities from the local community. They only hire 1 or 2 at a time and permit harassment of them. When they do hire a minority they are harassed, bullied and discriminated against. This has been going on for years with these construction companies. Many of the individuals who participated in the training from 2005 did not become employed in the local area and definitely not by these two construction companies. Check your information (if you have any) from the previous training. Look up the participant names and find out who was employed, where they were employed, for how long and why they left the companies if ever hired. It is a common practice of these two construction companies not to hire on minorities with any true intentions of promoting them to higher levels. Check your information before you write about information that is only partly correct (there was a previous training). Coatesville will not grow and improve until local citizens are hired into jobs of value providing a skill.
ReplyDeleteThe people at the event were told that the NAACP organized it. OK maybe they were lied to. The Coatesville citizens did not become employed in local union construction because until the spring of 2011 there were no local construction projects. The Walker Administration and "bloc of four" saw to that. Know your facts.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that now begins to train in the union system will be ready for work long after the hotel is up and running. We did an enormous amount of work to get the unions to undertake the training of Coatesville residents. I believe this was a publicity stunt, most likely by the usual characters surrounding Coatesville that look for a "piece of the government funding pie" to put in their own pockets. It is an affront to those community activists who are doing something for Coatesville and not just trying to line their own pockets. O by the way, those people looking for a piece of pie may be eating it in prison. The investigations aren't over.