NAACP says MnDOT not meeting diversity goals
The NAACP says the Minnesota Department of Transportation is not hiring enough people of color and women.
Group officials say only 315 workers on 3,500 road projects are minorities.
A MnDOT spokesman did not have numbers immediately available, but said that department officials are concerned about the issue as well and work hard to meet diversity goals.
St. Paul NAACP president Jeffery Martin said the problem isn’t that there aren't enough workers of color.
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He said there are job training programs meant to put more people of color in construction jobs like the those required for road construction.
Rather, the problem is that contractors working on transportation department projects aren't hiring those workers, Martin said.
“What we would like to see is if you don’t meet the rules you don’t get another contract from the state," Martin said. "That’s the clearest message to send to them.”
Martin said the state’s Department of Human Rights requires 32 percent of work hours on public projects the Metro area be given to people of color. Women are supposed to get 6 percent of those project hours.