Efforts to enforce the cityโs living wage ordinance and ensure formerly incarcerated people have a fair shot of employment are priming New Orleans โ and ถถา๕h โ for comprehensive fair-hiring practices and better wages.
The New Orleans City Councilโs Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed two ordinances Sept. 27: one aims to enforce the cityโs living wage ordinance for employees of city contractors, and another โbans the boxโ on criminal history for job applications for city hires as well as employees working for companies with city contracts. The measures head to the full City Council, where they're expected to pass.
Advocates say theyโre a start, and that city officials should use the momentum to begin peeling back other layers preventing employment and other opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, from moving toward banning the box statewide and in private sector jobs and in public housing.
โThis is only the beginning of a long fight,โ said Kiana Calloway with Voice of the Experience (VOTE).
The โban the boxโ change aims to ensure applicants are โconsidered for employment opportunities based on the merits of their skills and experience,โ and not weighed against their criminal history. It extends those rules to employers receiving grants or under city contracts or cooperative endeavor agreements.
Barry Smith wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and clocks in at 6 with the New Orleans Department of Sanitation. For the last year and three months, heโs w…
โWe have systems in place that prevent former offenders from having a chance in the first place,โ said Palmer, pointing to nearly 400 mandatory hiring restrictions for people with felony records, which she said is the equivalent of โsurgery with an ax rather than a scalpel.โ
โMoving this type of screening further into process allows candidates to provide the best version of themselves on the onset,โ Palmer said.
Palmer also said that the rules should also apply to city boards and commissions, as well as the people who contract with boards and commissions, ending a โcycle of disinvestment and crime that will hold our city back,โ she said.
LaTanja Silvester, president of Service Employees International Union in New Orleans, said the โboxโ presents a barrier to people who already โpaid their debt to the community." That cycle disproportionately impacts black men, and a "box" often represents legal discrimination perpetuating systemic racism in and outside the criminal justice system.
โThis is unfair, this is unorthodox, and I think itโs time we dig deep inside our hearts and policies so we can affect change,โ Silvester said.
Step Up Louisian has pushed city officials to introduce the measure, as well as equal pay enforcement and a $15 minimum wage. Co-director Ben Zucker says banning the box is โthe first step in trying to make public policy that makes it easier for people coming out of prison," but he also challenged city officials to consider, โHow can we leverage public dollars and the public sector to support folks coming back to find jobs in the most creative ways we can think of?โ
Council Vice President Helena Moreno said there also should be efforts at the city level to organize a โre-entry center,โ a sort of โone-stop shopโ for people returning from prison to access jobs and other services that typically are disconnected, especially with recent state-level criminal justice reform to reduce sentences for certain offenders.
โRe-entry seems to be the big buzzword โฆ Everyone seems to be for it, but so often those barriers arenโt coming down,โ Moreno said.
Cat Rieder with community re-entry program Roots of Renewal says initiatives to reduce prison sentences and recidivism are โworthlessโ without resources to connect people to jobs.
But several formerly incarcerated people argued that even with the ability to land a job following a conviction, theyโve been stifled by a lack of enforcement of the cityโs living wage ordinance.
VOTE statewide organizer Dolfinette Martin said her first job after serving โseven years, four months and 28 daysโ was working on a moving truck. โThey didnโt have a box,โ she said.
โWe have to get rid of the box, but go a step further: Oversight,โ she said. โIf theyโre not giving us the jobs, then donโt give them the contracts.โ
With several victories behind them and the likely passage of both ordinances by the full City Council in coming weeks, Step Up organizers and advocates are taking the next steps to ensure better wages โ Zucker told Gambit that the City Council also could use its bully pulpit to influence the private sector, and several councilmembers said theyโre also willing to work with members of the ถถา๕h Legislature for state-level changes.
โWeโre standing on the hands of you all saying, 'make some change,'โ Sabrina Carter said. โConvicted, female and black on my application โ what are my chances?โ