Noose incident at the Comcast site spurs a demonstration

In light of an alleged racial-harassment incident at the site of the new Comcast tower, a prominent African American business activist yesterday called for the hiring of more minority construction workers and better treatment for them once they get a job.

A. Bruce Crawley, president of Millennium 3 Management, a public relations firm, and former leader of the African American Chamber of Commerce, said he had previously focused on insisting that skilled-trade unions accept more minority workers. "We were not aware of the pervasive racial harassment on these work sites," he said.

Crawley participated in a demonstration yesterday at the Comcast site that was spurred by at Oct. 1 incident involving Paul Solomon, an African American hoist operator, and a white member of the glaziers' union. Solomon said yesterday that the glazier shook a noose at him as he stopped his hoist at the 45th floor. "He looked me in my eyes and told me he wanted to hang somebody," Solomon said. He said the man later tried to say he was joking. Solomon said he viewed the incident as a "hate crime."

The case is now "under review" by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, said spokeswoman Cathie Abookire.

Jeanne Leonard, vice president of investor relations for Liberty Property Trust, which owns the Comcast site, said the glazier was removed from his job at that project that day. "We have zero-tolerance policies for harassment on our site, and if incidents occur, we do take action," she said. She said minorities accounted for 15 percent of skilled workers at the Comcast site.

Crawley said he had heard from other African American construction workers who say they, too, have faced harassment on the job. The Comcast incident, he said, was "just the tip of the iceberg. It was symptomatic of a broader issue. You could have had that demonstration anywhere."

Patrick Gillespie, business manager of the Building Trades Council, said area construction unions had several initiatives aimed at increasing the number of minority union members. He thought minority representation was irrelevant to this noose incident - one of several across the country in recent months.

Crawley said he wanted to see a "top-down commitment to ensuring the quality of the work environment." The mayor and governor should be held accountable, he said, and contractors who allow harassment should be fined or barred from work. He also called for the establishment of a construction-industry harassment hotline and for a computerized registry of workers who have engaged in harassment. Such employees would be ineligible for work on any City of Philadelphia work site.