Jackson Pushes for Local Katrina Labor
By Associated Press

October 5, 2005, 10:54 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson, decrying what he says is a lack of local labor taking part in hurricane cleanup efforts, said Wednesday he plans to bus evacuated residents back to the city.

Jackson said the federal response to the hurricane has enabled large government contractors to win no-bid contracts that could instead benefit local residents who now are unemployed and living in shelters around the country.

'We're talking about cleanup, debris removal, driving trucks, driving bulldozers -- these are skills within the realm of people who are being victimized by this crisis,' he said.

Jackson said emergency workers and contractors have inundated the city, and displaced residents living on military bases and in hotels around the nation could use similar accommodations in and around their native city.

'If they can stay in hotels in Detroit, they can stay in hotels in downtown New Orleans,' Jackson said in telephone call from California, a day after visiting the storm-struck Gulf Coast.

Jackson said a caravan of buses will leave Sunday or Monday from Chicago to pick up men and women during stops in St. Louis, Memphis and Jackson, Miss., before heading to New Orleans. He said his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will work with officials from New Orleans to help the residents get job training and work repairing their city.

Jackson had no specific estimate of how many people would be transported or how many buses would be used.

Sally Forman, spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin, said she had not been told about Jackson's plan. She added that the mayor was in meetings and not immediately available for comment.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.