NCJC to Picket Bozzuto, Metro Project on RI Ave. in NE

NCJC to Picket Bozzuto, Metro Project on RI Ave. in NE

Washington, DC, October 26, 2010: The National Capital Jobs Coalition (NCJC) will launch a public job action against the Bozzuto Construction Company and the METRO development project on Rhode Island Ave. Metro Station in NE Washington, DC on Thursday morning, October 28th at 8:30 AM. Linwood Martinez-Bentley, a longtime DC activist and co-director of the group, said that, “… Bozzuto and others like them have ignored DC Law long enough. Mayor Fenty has failed to enforce this law. We urge Vincent Gray to make this a high priority.”

First Source Legislation requires outside businesses that come into this city and take city dollars must hire 51% of their workforce from citizens of The District. “In this economy, with record deficits, we cannot afford to let hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential revenue to our city simply drive out the beltway,” said Bentley. “We need our tax dollars to create jobs for our citizens. First Source is a partial remedy that must be enforced and reinforced.” Also, Bentley continued, “ …many companies are not paying the required wages. This is also against the law. The City is not enforcing this law and since these projects are being funded, in part by our tax dollars, we, the citizens of DC, want to know if these multi-million dollar job sites are in compliance.”

The presumptive new Mayor Vincent Gray commented during a recent Town Hall meeting that, if city funded projects do not hire the number of city residents required by First Source legislation that they, “… should be shut down.” NCJC agrees totally with those sentiments, as do key members of The City Council. We have had expressions of support from other Councilmen including the following sitting council members: CM Michael Brown and the presumptive Council Chairperson Kwame Brown. We also have support from At-Large Candidate David Schwartzman. Given such widespread encouragement, NCJC intends to strike the first blow in support of more aggressive and direct citizen involvement.

Jerome Peloquin, First Source Program Manager for NCJC commented that, “This is just the beginning. We plan to launch these job actions on a regular basis and to ratchet up the level of visibility. This will be a non-violent protest, but it will not be a quiet one. Our intention is to link with other community activist organizations including a number of drum circles that will participate on behalf of the people of DC who are suffering record unemployment. Carpetbagging companies from outside-of-DC need to take notice … the free lunch is over. It’s time to pay your fair share of the bill here in Washington, DC.”

For further information contact Jerry Peloquin on his cell at 410.227.0498 or by email at jpeloquin@microventuresupport.org