DC Failing Own Workers

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Jobless DC residents are being victimized by high unemployment and their own government’s failure to enforce basic laws specifically designed to help them. DC’s 4-year-old living wage law has yet to be implemented, and the District’s “first source” law is largely being ignored, according to recent reports and investigations. Councilmember Michael Brown (I-At large), will hold a hearing this Wednesday at 10A on his "District Resident Employment Trade Stimulus Act,” which would require development projects receiving over $200,000 in city funding to meet higher standards for employing D.C. residents, offer on-site training programs and to sign “Project Labor Agreements” setting workplace conditions. According to a report released by auditor Deborah Nichols in May, D.C.’s first source and living wage programs have not been enforced. These programs mandate an equitable hourly wage as well as require government contractors receiving taxpayer dollars to make sure that 51 percent of their new workers are District residents. Councilmember Michael Brown, Chairman of the Housing and Workforce Development committee, says that 72 percent of the 700,000 jobs in D.C. are held by non-District residents. First Source programs are meant to correct this disparity, but as the Washington Business Journal reported, of the 16 development projects that Nichols reviewed, only four met the 51 percent hiring requirement. - Essie Ablavsky, AFL-CIO Union Summer Intern; photo courtesy Georgetown University