Councilman says pickets will shut down project

The shutdown may occur after June 21.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city councilman says pickets will shut down a school construction site unless contractors hire more minorities and women.
Clarence Boles, D-6th, and a former member of the Youngstown school board, called a press conference Friday to say the situation is unacceptable.
The schools have a list of minority and female workers who are qualified and ready to go to work but are not getting jobs, Boles said.
The Youngstown Area Urban League also has list of eligible workers, but no one has contacted them either, Boles added.
The councilman said that if contractors and unions contacted him by June 21, the situation can be discussed.
If nothing changes, the minority community will picket and close construction of one of the new schools, he said.
The new Taft and Harding schools are under construction and slated to open in the fall. Ground has been broken and work under way at the new East High School and P. Ross Berry Middle School on the East Side.
Six-year project
The board of education has started a $200 million, six-year construction project to rebuild the city's schools.
Boles acknowledged that quotas calling for contractors to hire 20 percent minorities, 20 percent women and 50 percent local residents for the construction projects are goals, not requirements.
"I am concerned about complaints that I am hearing throughout the black community. The white contractors and the white trade union members must understand that they can no longer be in total control of this school project and be the only beneficiaries," Boles said. "The spirit and intent of the 20-20-50 agreement was to make a good-faith effort to include black citizens and females from this city."
There are about 20 blacks working on the projects, but no females working are employed in the construction, said the councilman, who added, "That's not sufficient for me."
The Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania indicated last year it might file a lawsuit if there was an effort to enforce what it believed to be quotas.
Boles said efforts to meet the quotas by the buildings trades were slow and small.
"We must take a stand now," he said. "I want to see some progress."
If there is one worker on the job from Pennsylvania, Boles said, that person must go.
Al Curry, the school district's equal employment opportunity officer for the construction project, said he did have a list of qualified workers. But he declined to comment further and referred questions to a school board spokesman, who did not return a call.
wilkinson@vindy.com