(Wikimedia Commons)

The rail will run through historically low-income neighborhoods, and outreach groups such as the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) are looking for ways the project can benefit the locals.

The Metro Board of Directors created a first-of-its-kind initiative that requires construction workers assigned to a given project must meet certain quotas: 40 percent must live in an economically disadvantaged area, 10 percent must be considered disadvantaged workers and 20 percent must be apprentices.

This breakdown hopes to help ensure local participation, and also provide opportunities for others who may have trouble finding work, such as veterans and foster youth. The apprentice guideline would give a new worker a chance to build a career in skilled labor. 

According to Miguel Cabral, the Director of Economic Development Initiatives, the initiative complies with federal law to get funding but was able to create a new way to hire workers from lower-income areas in Los Angeles.

“Crenshaw/LAX is federally funded so we have to follow the regulations and are not allowed to do local hire,” Cabral said. “But we were able to creative.”

Due to federal anti-discrimination laws, the plan frames the project’s goals in terms of hiring people from certain zip codes that apply across the United States, rather than explicitly imposing quotas by race.

The initiative would have met resistance at the state level, too: California’s Proposition 209 blocks affirmative action policies. 

“People forget that Prop 209 doesn’t just apply to college admissions. It also applies to employment,” said Jackie Cornejo, who is the Director of the Construction Careers Project.

Cornejo said she wants to target the African-American community since the percentage of African-American skilled construction workers is “extremely low.”

In 2010, less than four percent of construction managers in the U.S. were African-American, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. 

But while African-Americans are less likely to work in a construction field that requires training, they make up a higher percentage of unskilled laborers such as cement masons and concrete finishers. 

LAANE has focused on outreach activities over the past year to encourage South L.A. residents from the qualifying zip codes to become involved in the Metro line project. Community partners have put together “Construction 101” workshops and guidebooks that inform participants how to find out about construction projects, where to get training, how to get union certification, and how to obtain the necessary skills.

“We want to make sure that when the shovel hits the ground, there will be lots of folks ready to complete the project,” Cornejo said.

According to Cabral, the contractor has submitted an Employment Hiring Plan that states that they currently estimate 300-350 construction jobs will be utilized for the Project. Walsh/Shea estimated that in total, the project is estimated to create 7,500 jobs with at least 3,000 (over one-third) of the workers coming from low-income areas of Los Angeles.