Syracuse residents who’ve trained for - and are now working - on the I-81 project are in a good position to find jobs after the project is complete. A state and local hiring initiative aims to make a generational difference in long-neglected communities.
The range of job opportunities is immense. The state has been working in lockstep with grassroots community groups to ensure residents in select Syracuse zip codes have a chance to work on the project in their own backyard. State labor commissioner Roberta Reardon says they’re substantial positions.
“We are not just giving them a job with a broom. We're going to give them career skills," Reardon said. "We're going to make sure they've got something after this job ends. We want to make sure that they're really engaged.”
DOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez says the heavy highway work skills are transferable to other projects like Micron's chip fab facility.
“We've got iron workers, we've got laborers, we've got carpenters. We've got everybody," Dominguez said.
Labor Commissioner Reardon continued the thought.
“Electrical maintenance, welding. Welding is an enormous skill that's high, high, high demand," Reardon said. "It's really a pathway to some fabulous careers. Micron’s trying to build their plants and then they're going to have workers in their plants and they're going to have maintenance workers in their plants.”
The workers are also bringing their new skills back to their neighborhoods. Jorrell Johnson, for instance, is a first-year ironworker apprentice helping some friends.
“Helping them build part of the garage basements and things like that," Johnson said. "So learning stuff on the job from different forming and different unions is helping me a lot around the house.”
Shakeila Brown earned her Class-A Commercial Driver's License and operates a dump truck.
“I've been on this project for about 6 months now. I love it. I love being a part of the change within the community,” Brown said. "One of my goals is to bring aboard more women. There's 9% of women right now. As long as we can get the word across that there is opportunities for them, we'll be able to do good for the community.”
Here's a link to the I-81 project jobseeker intake form.
