EAST ST. LOUIS -- "Members of the Metro-East Black Contractors Organization look forward to a meeting Friday with Illinois Department of Transportation's Acting Secretary Ann Schneider.
"IDOT has agreed to the demand of MEBCO, East St. Louis elected officials and community leaders to come to the table and talk to us about jobs for our people," said Eric Vickers, legal counsel for the contractors' group.
Schneider will meet with the group at 2 p.m. Friday at City Hall. Mayor Alvin L. Parks Jr. will serve as host.
The group said last month it will shut down the Mississippi River Bridge construction project if more minorities are not hired for the $749 million project.
A spokesman for IDOT has said the project exceeded federal requirements for minority participation as of the first quarter of this year.
The president of the group, Bill Mason, said it's a first step and he is optimistic that the meeting will lead to more minority participation on the Mississippi River Bridge project and other construction work that is going on in East St. Louis.
Mason said he knows of only seven individuals who completed the Highway Construction Preparatory Training Program and have been given IDOT jobs.
Beverly Greer Bush Russell, a former educator in East St. Louis School District 189, who tutored many of the graduates, said they are ready to go to work and should be given the opportunity.
She said the students showed up two days a week for two-hour periods for tutoring. "They were eager to learn mathematics to pass the adult basic education test at SWIC so they could get into the construction apprentice program," she said.
"We want to get more blacks working on this project and the training program they terminated reinstated. They took the program from East St. Louis and give it to SWIC," Vickers said". Courtesy of Carolyn P. Smith, Belleville News Democrat
