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Jobs to Move America wants the federal ban on local hiring lifted in order for projects to benefit local economies.
Walsh created a program to train workers for the I-81 project that could run up against that ban.
“What we’re trying to use Syracuse Builds for is the conduit for a pathways to apprenticeship program in partnership with local labor. But we also know there have historically been barriers in the trade particularly to communities of color,” he said.
Walsh says lifting of the ban would help some of the thousands of jobs for the I-81 project to go to local people. Deka Dancil with the Urban Jobs Task Force has been trying to find ways around the federal ban against local hiring in Syracuse. Her group did a study that showed the racial disparities of government-funded projects. It showed 87% of workers on such projects were white, while the city population is only 49% white.