Protesters demonstrate at Sound Transit construction site

About 17 demonstrators this morning entered a Sound Transit construction site on top of Beacon Hill where a future light rail station is being built.

The group chanted, "No black contracts, no black jobs, no light rail" after entering the site at about 10:40 a.m.

Police arrived at 11:05 a.m. and but officers took no action.

Construction workers turned off their heavy equipment and nearly all of them moved back to the office trailers. The site is at Beacon Avenue South and South Lander Street.

A similar protest in late April blocked Rainier Avenue South for about 15 minutes. The demonstrators, which includes the Community Coalition for Contract and Jobs, are upset because only about two percent of construction dollars have gone to a small African American owned companies.

Sound Transit has hired an investigator to look into this and related complaints.

The protesters left the site at noon after speaking with a Seattle Police lieutenant and the construction site supervisor. They planned to protest at another Sound Transit construction site on Rainier Avenue at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com