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Hundreds protest new Marlins stadium
BY LUISA YANEZ AND JULIE BROWN crline lyanez@MiamiHerald.com
Shouting ``Liars, Liars, Liars!'' and honking horns, and stopping traffic, hundreds of laborers and construction workers picketed the new Florida Marlins stadium in Little Havana Tuesday morning, claiming that they have been denied promised jobs.
The workers -- from unions, local construction companies and independent contractors -- said they were protesting because of the baseball team's failure to use local workers to help build the new stadium.
``The stadium was supposed to bring jobs here and help improve our economy. But that's a lie,'' said Jesus Contreras, who said he was turned down for a job.
Also demonstrating was Raul Casares, president of RC Aluminum, whose company's bid was rejected in favor of a company in Indiana, he said.
``There's some hanky panky going on here,'' he added.
Miami police on horseback tried to quell the chaos at the demonstration site along Northwest 7th St. and 14th Avenue.
A Marlins representative responded by handing out fact sheets to the media, contending that the crowd's claims were untrue.
The leaflets said that the Florida Marlins have exceeded local participation goals in the project. As of Oct 31, 59 percent of the workers and companies are from Miami-Dade, the Marlins said.
This represents a significant increase above the 35 percent aspirational goals approved by the county and city commissioners, they said. And 94 percent of workers live in Florida, of which 61 percent are from Miami-Dade County and 22 percent of those live in the city of Miami.
BY LUISA YANEZ AND JULIE BROWN crline lyanez@MiamiHerald.com
Shouting ``Liars, Liars, Liars!'' and honking horns, and stopping traffic, hundreds of laborers and construction workers picketed the new Florida Marlins stadium in Little Havana Tuesday morning, claiming that they have been denied promised jobs.
The workers -- from unions, local construction companies and independent contractors -- said they were protesting because of the baseball team's failure to use local workers to help build the new stadium.
``The stadium was supposed to bring jobs here and help improve our economy. But that's a lie,'' said Jesus Contreras, who said he was turned down for a job.
Also demonstrating was Raul Casares, president of RC Aluminum, whose company's bid was rejected in favor of a company in Indiana, he said.
``There's some hanky panky going on here,'' he added.
Miami police on horseback tried to quell the chaos at the demonstration site along Northwest 7th St. and 14th Avenue.
A Marlins representative responded by handing out fact sheets to the media, contending that the crowd's claims were untrue.
The leaflets said that the Florida Marlins have exceeded local participation goals in the project. As of Oct 31, 59 percent of the workers and companies are from Miami-Dade, the Marlins said.
This represents a significant increase above the 35 percent aspirational goals approved by the county and city commissioners, they said. And 94 percent of workers live in Florida, of which 61 percent are from Miami-Dade County and 22 percent of those live in the city of Miami.
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