Remember when Rainier Beach Community Center was demolished and rebuilt in 2009. Did you know that no residents of Rainier Beach worked on the construction. We organized and won an ordinance with the City of Seattle that now requires all City of Seattle Construction projects over $5MM to have 25% of the projects workforce come from underinvested or economically disadvantaged  in zip codes (98118, 98108, 98178, 98106,98126, 98122, 98144. FYI The Rainier Beach Community Center is 10 years old this year. A result of the organizing is the Seattle Center Arena. This $900MM project should abide by the 25% requirement That’s right the former Key Arena where the Seattle Supersonics used to play A contractor has been secured – Mortenson General Contractors. RBAC is now in a monitoring mode of their work. Here are the numbers to watch, remember 25%:

  • 327 Journey New Hires (82 should be from underinvested in zip codes)
  • 170 Priority Hire New Hires ( 42 should be people from underinvested in zip codes)
  • 78 Apprentice New Hires (20 people from underinvested in zip codes)
  • 44 Priority Hire Apprentices New Hires (11 should be people from underinvested in zip codes)
  • 43 Preferred Entry New Hires (11 people should be from underinvested in zip codes)

The above is a potential for 165 hires from underinvested in zip codes. 165 people who otherwise would not be in the workforce earning a living wage job. Congrats to the organizers who made this happen, you know who you are.

If you are interested in working in the construction industry give RBAC a call at 206.420.1010 Monday through Friday from 10 am-4 pm and ask for Eddie Grinnell. He’s the one with the RBAC hoodie in the accompanying photos You can also come by our offices located at 9013 Martin Luther King Junior Way, just west of the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station.