The Association of Builders and Contractors of Metropolitan Washington plans to file a lawsuit against the District government for requirements to increase the percentage of DC residents for large construction projects. The organization claimed the hiring goals laid out in the current and revised DC First Source law are completely unrealistic and unattainable.
“The goals would force companies to discriminate against their current employees based on place of residence rather than hire or promote internally them based on each person’s work performance, which is the heart of the Merit Shop Philosophy,” said spokesman Eric J. Jones, associate director of government affairs of the ABC of Metro Washington.
“In addition, the current lack of registered and licensed journeymen living in the District of Columbia would make reaching the stated goals very difficult. Further, because of the regional nature of the local construction industry, employees may be assigned to a project team working in DC for one week, then Maryland or Virginia the next week. Employees are not assigned based on their place of residency, but as part of a skilled team,” Jones continued.
The organization asserted trying to implement this law would require companies to break up teams of workers who have been put together based on their performance and skill sets, which would cause drops in productivity and worker morale, as well as increase cost.
“There has never been a project in the District which has been able to meet these projected numbers for a job,” said Jones.
However, representatives from the Council and community activists vehemently disagreed with the developer’s organization.
“We disagree with this claim and feel that the final numbers are realistic and are based on the experiences of the building of the National’s Stadium and the ongoing construction of the Convention Center Hotel. Furthermore, the fact that the journey worker requirement is only 20 percent speaks to the fact that we have acknowledged that DC doesn’t have a deep bench of these particular workers,” said David Meadows, communications director for Councilman Michael A. Brown (I-At Large).
George Gilbert, director for DC Jobs or Else in southeast Washington said ABC’s response reeks of discrimination.
“The ABC contractors never hired DC residents in the first place but gave preference to Virginia and Maryland workers but now claim it is unfair to VA and MD workers. That is circular logic,” Gilbert replied.
The law also calls for a review of these requirements after the first year and every three years following to determine whether they are too aggressive or not aggressive enough.
In strong opposition to the developers and contractors, the creation of the workforce intermediary will help facilitate this type of job placement on construction projects.
“The law maintains the ability to obtain a ‘good faith waiver’ so if there truly are no District residents who are qualified to fill these positions the contractor should be able to show their efforts to hire a DC resident and thus receive a good faith waiver,” Meadows said.
ABC also claimed the law is unfair because it targets the Construction Industry which makes up less than two percent of the District’s workforce and the industry has suffered a greater than 20 percent rate of unemployment as a result of the recession.
“This law covers all industries, however, due to the city’s large investment in construction projects throughout the city, and because of the city’s prior experience in this field, we were able to add more specifics for construction projects that receive subsidies over $5million,” said Meadows.
The law requires the Department of Employment Services to assess and recommend similar types of hiring requirements for non-construction projects within one year.
Gilbert claimed the developers and contractors are searching for loopholes that will allow discriminatory practices against Blacks and other DC residents to continue.
“Many, if not all, ABC contractors have had apprenticeship programs for years. If the ABC is committed to putting DC residents to work, then why has it not already graduated a sufficient number of apprentices that live here,” replied Gilbert. “ABC is acknowledging its own failure.”
Gilbert believed that within two years most contractors will have the requisite number of DC residents that it failed to hire in the first place. “It just sounds racist. ABC is attempting to hide their racist tactics. But we will continue to expose and fight them every step of the way,” Gilbert said.
DC Jobs or Else plans a big rally in front of a construction site to bring more attention to the discriminatory practices that are being financed by the government, given tax credits or zoning changes that allow contractors to profits huge sums of revenue.
