Congressman
Bobby Rush wouldn’t give the press a look at the “memorandum of understanding”
he says he negotiated with IHC Construction/Illinois Constructors Joint Venture,
the successful bidder on METRA’s $93 million Englewood Flyover rail overpass
construction contract to boost minority employment on the project, probably
because the deal is essentially meaningless for increasing employment in the Englewood
neighborhood. The project is intended to untangle one of the most congested
rail bottlenecks in the United States, and reduce freight train interference
with commuter rail service on Chicago’s south side.
Ballyhooed
last week as a boosting employment for Englewood residents, the deal really
does little or nothing for jobs in the neighborhood. According to METRA
officials, the deal sets up a community liaison to facilitate contacts between
contractors on the project and minority businesses and workers, and provides
mentoring for African American owned companies. What it doesn’t do is require
the general contractor to hire companies not included in its bid to METRA. If
it did, that would violate state bid shopping laws. While IHC President David
Rock says “It’s my goal to get some local folks jobs,” he quickly adds “They
still have to be able to do the work.” Given the high rate of gang related
shootings in Englewood, what happens when skilled construction tradespeople in
Englewood get work, is that they move out of the neighborhood.
The
contractors and subcontractors on this project will be required to submit
certified payrolls including the ZIP Codes of each worker on the site. It would
be an interesting academic exercise for some local Ph.D. social science student
to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain them, and do an analysis of the
worker migration out of Englewood during the course of the construction work. However,
it’s doubtful anyone will go to such lengths to test whether Congressman Rush
has actually done anything at all to improve overall employment of Englewood
residents by this headline grabbing, legally unenforceable “memorandum of
understanding.”
