ST. PAUL (September 29, 2009) A delegation of HIRE Minnesota leadership met with Minnesota Department of Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel, Tuesday, after leading a staged funeral procession to MnDOT headquarters to show its failure for 17 years to accountable to hiring goals for women and communities of color.
H.I.R.E. (Healthcare, Infrastructure, and Renewable Energy) is a coalition of community groups, headed by Summit Academy OIC. Its goals are to secure additional investments in programs that prepare communities for the new economy.
HIRE is also working for 25 percent minority participation on all MnDOT Twin Cities jobs and contracts, and other local government public works projects in the five county metro area.
The best social service program in the world is a job, said Louis King, Summit Academy OIC.
More than a hundred marchers in black armbands, yellow vests and white construction hard-hats, followed a team of four Native American drummers from Lao Family Community down University Avenue to the State Capitol and MnDOT plaza.
Participants walked with mock-gravestones, marked with one of 17 years and the percentage of minority and women hiring for that years. They were staked down in front of MnDOT headquarters, and as the marchers sang civil rights songs, the delegation went inside to see MnDOT leaders.
The Reverend Paul Slack, Pastor of New Creation Church in Brooklyn Park, returned with the group and was pleased to announce that they were promised a meeting with Commissioner Sorel before the end of the day.
The meeting would include a view of the now unpublished minority hiring statistics for 2009. We can now gain clarity about how this will be transformed, and not just from their perspective we will be there, said Slack.
We can begin right now to change things, he added. It is not good enough to have programs; we need outcomes; we need them hired and hired now.
State Rep. Jeff Hayden (DFL-61B), said that many HIRE volunteers were around all year helping to advocate change for equity in hiring practices. He said others are waiting for results and that it is difficult.
Hayden said he and others are helping to make sure the candidates for governor and other state offices are aware of this issue and know their position. He hopes that the next HIRE event will be a celebration of success.
We need you to help us by being patient and being diligent, said Hayden. No struggle comes easy, so get involved and stay involved.
Louis King said HIRE set out to change things with MnDOT through the legislature this year and did not succeed. He said the next step is to continue holding MnDOT for promises not delivered and setting the stage for making this a top issue of the next political season.
Part of your training is not just about begin good construction workers, but about being a citizen in this community, to work together with other people so everyone can take care of their families, King said to the participants.
Phu Moua, a St. Paul resident and student of Summit Academy, was one of two Hmong students in the large group. He said that after cutbacks left him unemployed, he wanted to learn to be a carpenter.
Moua is now completing his third week of a two month program, with another two month extension to learn related occupations in electric, plumbing and sheet metal, and weatherization.
He wanted to support the event to benefit to help ensure that he and his school mates will have a job waiting for him when they complete training.
HIRE Minnesota is a coalition of more than 70 community organizations that works to ensure access for all people to jobs, training and living wages for low-income people and people of color, and promote healthy communities, including rebuilding our infrastructure and easing the climate crisis.
For more information call 612-278-5257 or visit www.hiremn.org and www.saoic.org.
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