Construction Workers Picket UCSF Mission Bay Project For Jobs
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Unemployed tradesman picketed a hospital construction project at UCSF Mission Bay on Thursday to demand that more local workers be hired for jobs on the site.
Members of the Aboriginal Blackmen United, a community group that has championed legislation to encourage local hiring on construction projects in the city, blocked access to one of two gates onto the site.
"There's people in there working that are not from here," said Ashley Rhodes, a spokesman for the group.
KCBS' Tim Ryan Reports:
Each of the 25 men and women on the picket line lived nearby in Bayview Hunter's Point and was qualified for a job on the project, he said. The picketers were prepared to halt work on the $1 billion project if necessary to call attention to unemployment in the neighborhood.
The city recently passed an ordinance mandating local hiring on city funded construction projects. The law phases in those requirements over several years.
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