Metro CEO Art Leahy, Metro Board Member Jackie Dupont-Walker, LeDaya Epps, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and James Martinez at the Crenshaw/Expo Yard. Photo Luis Inzunza/Metro.

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez yesterday visited the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project as part of a nationwide tour leading up to Labor Day, 2014. Perez was welcomed by Metro Board Member Jackie Dupont-Walker, Metro CEO Art Leahy and two workers from the Walsh/Shea Corridor Construction (WSCC) apprenticeship program LeDaya Epps and James Martinez Safety Technician.

Also in attendance were U.S. Representative Maxine Waters; Ron Miller, Executive Secretary, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building Trades Council; Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Project Director UCLA Labor Center/Los Angeles Black Worker Center; Erich Engler, Business Manager WSCC; Ernest Roberts, Executive Director PV Jobs; Jan Perry, General Manager, Economic & Workforce Development Department, City of Los Angeles; Nolan V. Rollins, President & CEO Los Angeles Urban League and Charles Beauvoir, Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project Director.
Perez praised Metro for implementation of the innovative Project Labor Agreement and Career Construction Project (PLA/CCP), the first for a transit agency led by Metro CEO Art Leahy.

The 8.5-mile Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project will connect the Green and Expo line with eight new stations that will run throughout the Crenshaw District, Inglewood and Westchester and will create jobs, development, and beautification that will eventually benefit residents of Los Angeles County.

A brief tour of the future site of the underground Crenshaw/Expo Station was led by LeDaya Epps and James Martinez. Perez witnessed the cutter soil mix process which is the first step for the underground station.

The visit ended with Epps and Martinez talking to Secretary Perez about the benefits of PLA/CCP and how they are benefitting from the construction of the light rail project. U.S. Labor Department representatives previously visited Metro to overview the workforce development initiative developed as a result of Metro’s groundbreaking PLA/CCP. Metro was selected as one of the five cities that U.S. Labor Department Secretary Perez is visiting before Labor Day.