Workers protest construction company, allege discrimination
African American residents in the District say the federal government is ignoring their applications for jobs at the Department of Homeland Security.
The tags on the car of construction workers at the Department of Homeland Security are overwhelmingly from Maryland and Virginia. Residents staged a protest at a nearby church claiming that too few locals are being hired in Ward 8, where unemployment surpasses 26 percent.
"We're frustrated with the idea you keep telling us to come back, come back and no response, no calls no nothing,” one resident said.
They left the church where they rallied, launching a protest march through Barry farm public housing to the entrance of the jobsite, saying they wanted to shut it down.
Clark construction and GSA oversee this project and insist that D.C. workers are being hired. They released figures that 25 percent of the workers here are D.C. residents who get 20 percent of the manhours worked. Critics dispute that.
Workers turned away trucks, even ones that didn't seem to be headed to the site.
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