When they built a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis to replace one which had collapsed they hired a contractor who worked it 24/7, who paid a lot of overtime to licensed tradesmen and engineers who completed it early and did a fine job of it. Beautiful bridge and he earned his early completion bonus.
If there is racism issues with a local union go after them. Don't shackle a contractor who is getting a job that needs to be done with social welfare notions.
The issue isn’t racial quotas, it is the unfairness of the union strangleholds on construction projects, including taxpayer funded construction projects.
And while we are at it, paying for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled manual labor in inner cities, we sure ought to be considering the bigger picture of what is the most cost effective way of getting the job done correctly.
I would unshackle contractors from unions in general, myself. No reason for poor Joe Average to subsidize those guys through special legislation giving unions such a firm grip on our government (or private sector) spending.
Oh, and if it is good policy for taxpayers to train inner city men while they are getting their construction done, but a contractor doesn’t want to help deliver that to the taxpayers, then the job should be given to another contractor.