Ward 8 residents protested Tuesday the slow pace of employment recovery (or lack of a recovery) in their neck of the woods. According to D.C. Jobs or Else, which organized the protest, unemployment across the Anacostia River is still at a record 30 percent.
The protest was held on the 11th Street Bridge project site, a statement that residents felt they were being “excluded from jobs in their backyard,” the news release announcing the protest said. According to the group, fewer than 10 percent of construction workers and local minority contractors on the $330 million project are D.C. residents.
“How can businesses justify hiring unskilled workers from Maryland and Virginia yet treat District residents like second-class citizens in their own city?” said Donald Temple, D.C. Jobs or Else spokesman.
D.C. Jobs or Else is a coalition of city community groups and local minority contractors.
