By B. Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – A group of minority organizations are filing a federal lawsuit against the St. Louis transportation system.
The plaintiffs say Metro has not included a sufficient number of minority contractors in its multi-million-dollar expansion of the Metrolink light rail system in West St. Louis County.
Eddie Hasan, with the group MOKAN, says Metro is violating federal civil rights laws in discriminating against minority firms.
"There is no doubt that we're going to achieve our goal because we're going to keep the pressure up in the court, in the streets, through negotiation, by all other means to cure this injustice. And Metro is going to come around the way all the other institutions in this town have come around," Hasan said.
While it has a goal of 20 percent minority participation, Metro says the extension project has minority firms with four-percent of the contracts and 10-percent with women-owned companies.