At the Maplewood Walmart (Store #5150), it continues to be "business as usual" with the same lack of Black labor on the construction sight as the store expands to a Super Walmart. We are aware that J. Williams Mechanical Contracting, Inc. (DBE/MBE) has a subcontract for vents and sheet metal work on the project and we appreciate that. Our concern remains that the majority of the store's patrons that we have observed are Black and the surrounding community has a large concentration of Blacks. Our people are watching their moneys spent in that store going towards the "Happy Holidays" of people who are overwhelmingly White. Construction jobs are high paying. If Walmart has no concern for the community and patrons of it's store, then it is up to us to make our concerns for this intolerable practice abundantly clear.
NO BLACK FRIDAY!!! Not in our community.
Contractor George Simms, a Black journeyman carpenter, who first discovered the lack of inclusion on this Walmart site, has followed up on contacts with store management and the general contractor as recently as Monday, November 16 and says that he is "Still being given a runaround by both parties."