Trades Say King Memorial Building On Exploitation

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Charging that work on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is being "undercut and outsourced to low-wage workers from China," area building trades workers will handbill outside the MLK Memorial Foundation at 401 F Street, NW at 9A today, reports Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 Representative Raymond Keen. "Importing workers from China, a country with extensive human rights and labor violations, to be exploited and underpaid in the US is wrong," reads the handbill. "Denying US workers the opportunity to contribute to this iconic monument during a time of high unemployment is wrong!" Vance Ayres - Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington DC Building Trades Council - told Union City, "I guarantee that if you police the job, you will find tons of prevailing wage violations, out-of-town workers and undocumented workers that the non-union contractors not sometimes, but almost all the time, are guilty of." Protest organizers are encouraging the labor community to call MLK, Jr. Foundation CEO Harry E. Johnson, Sr. at 202-737-5420 and tell him, "Let's build on Dr. Kings Dream, not tarnish it through the exploitation of Chinese workers in completing this overdue national memorial!" – photo courtesy Getty Images