Samuel R. Jones hasn’t worked in four years. At a protest Wednesday, he blamed New Haven’s Commission on Equal Opportunities (CEO).
At least the sign he carried blamed the CEO. It dubbed the agency the “Commission on Unequal Opportunities for blacks.”
Jones (pictured) is black. He’s a union journeyman. He sees government-funded construction projects all over town — and too few black faces working on them, he said.
He was one of 15 African-American protesters making that case in a mid-morning Wednesday picket line outside the Hall of Records government office building on Orange Street.
The CEO monitors city-backed projects to track racial hiring goals. It also trains people for construction work and helps them find jobs.
In a conversation on the protest line, Samuel Jones spoke about the state government, and the rebuilding of I‑95. “We’re not getting enough jobs,” he said. Asked about the CEO, he declined to discuss any objections to the agency beyond saying it is underfunded.
Alan Felder, on the other hand, blasted the CEO. Felder has been organizing projects for years now in the city, arguing that too few opportunities go to African-Americans; in some cases he has demonstrated against Latino immigrants landing construction jobs instead. (Click here to read about one recent Felder-led protest focusing on school construction.)
On Wednesday, Felder was asked about statistics the CEO regularly issues showing minority-hiring at New Haven government-backed projects exceeding goals and topping those in other communities.
Fedler noted that those statistics lump all racial minorities together. They shouldn’t, he argued.
“We are not participating in employment and economic development,” said Felder, who’s a plumber. “The CEO for us is like a well without water.”
Asked later for comment, mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said New Haven is no different from other governments in tracking minority hiring in general, rather than focusing on individual racial or ethnic groups. “We have been regarded as champions not only in the state but nationwide for ensuring that our construction projects employ significant resident and minority populations,” including a recent “Best Hiring Practices Nationally for Women in Construction” award, she said.
Mayorga cited the 360 State (aka Shartenberg) project as an example: in September, members of minority racial groups worked 39,136 of 127,000 hours on that job. “Two months ago this one project alone had already contributed $1.4 million in wealth to minority laborers and $1.2 million for New Haven residents not counting the 12 months left of the ongoing construction for this project,” she said.
If these individuals are concerned with state projects, why are they picketing New Haven? Because they live here? New Haven does lead in hiring minorities. The economic situation is bleak world-wide, but we still lead in this. If protesters are unhappy about i-95 and state construction jobs, that's Jodi Rell for you. Next time show up & vote for a better candidate for Governor!