PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ --
 
     WHAT: Representatives of media outlets are invited to attend as more than
           100 African-American construction workers, construction company
           owners, and aspiring construction workers demonstrate in Center City
           Philadelphia, on Friday, November 16, 11:00 am, as part of an effort
           to finally end the ongoing workforce and business discrimination in
           Philadelphia's construction industry that dates back to the 1890's.
 
           The organizers of the effort are calling the demonstration
           "'Build Smarter': End Discrimination in Philadelphia's Construction
           Industry Now!" because they say that the long-overdue inclusion of
           blacks and other minorities in appropriate numbers in the skilled
           trades unions will:
 
           -- Increase the local industry's workforce capacity
           -- Increase jobs for Philadelphia's residents
           -- Allow the industry to complete more projects on time and more
              cost-effectively
           -- Decrease the potential for unemployment-related criminal behavior
              in the City, and
           -- Decrease discrimination and harassment on City job sites.
 
           The demonstrators will assemble at Philadelphia's City Hall and move
           to the Comcast Tower Construction site at 17th Street and JFK
           Boulevard, here, the place where a member of the project's Glazier's
           Union brandished a hangman's noose in the face of a black hoist
           operator on October 1 of this year and told him he felt like
           "hanging somebody."
 
           African Americans constitute 45 percent of the City of
           Philadelphia's population, but, according to the U.S. Census Bureau,
           black-owned construction firms participate in just .8 percent of the
           Philadelphia region's construction industry revenues and African-
           American members of the construction industry's skilled trades
           unions are estimated in the low-to-mid single digits.
 
           The demonstrators will be joined by members of the New Jersey
           Chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, who
           have been suffering from similar forms of workforce harassment and
           discrimination.
 
           The demonstrators, who postponed a protest scheduled for last week
           because it would have conflicted with the memorial service for
           Charles Cassidy, the slain City police officer, say they are
           especially concerned because there has been no formal follow-up by
           the local construction industry or by Comcast executives on the
           meetings that were promised a month ago to address the issues of
           racial harassment, and black worker and contractor exclusion at the
           City's construction work sites. The organizers have put forth a
           13-point plan for producing full inclusion in the local construction
           industry.
 
     WHO:  -- African-American construction workers
           -- Aspiring construction workers
           -- Members of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of
              Minority Contractors
           -- Technical Assistance Center for Emerging Contractors
           -- Community Representatives
           -- African American Freedom and Reconstruction League
           -- "It's a Family Affair" civic organization
 
     WHEN: Friday, November 16, 2007
           11:00 a.m.
 
     WHERE: -- Philadelphia City Hall
               Philadelphia and Market Street
               Philadelphia, PA 19107
 
            -- Comcast Tower Construction site
               17th Street and JFK Boulevard
               Philadelphia, PA 19103
 
 

SOURCE Technical Assistance Center for Emerging Contractors