More than 100 unemployed workers, area clergy and social activists braved Saturday's noonday heat to rally for more construction jobs for members of minority groups and women. They walked in 93-degree weather from both sides of the Eads Bridge to the middle to make their point.

Workers at construction sites, such as those building the new Mississippi River bridge, don't reflect the community, said Troy Buchanan, jobs task force chairman for United Congregations of Metro-East. About half the residents of St. Louis and nearly 99 percent of those in East St. Louis are members of minority groups.

The church group sponsored the rally with five other religious and social justice organizations.

Buchanan and the rally participants urged the Missouri and Illinois departments of transportation and contractors to adopt a 30-30 plan — hire a work force of 30 percent minorities and women and give 30 percent of contracts to designated disadvantaged business enterprises.

Because the federal and state governments are financing the new bridge to connect downtown St. Louis and the Metro East area, local taxpayers should benefit from its construction, Buchanan said.

"We have to be fair and equitable," he said.

Greg Horn, director of the Mississippi River bridge project, said the Missouri Department of Transportation has been fair. "We're above the federal goals," he said.

The U.S. Department of Labor has set minority participation goals for the St. Louis area to hire 14.7 percent minorities and 6.9 percent women. After averaging all the bridge project's workers, 28 percent are minorities and women.

The project to build the bridge by 2014 will cost $670 million. The federal government expects Missouri officials to award $64 million in contracts to companies owned by members of minority groups and women. State officials said 73 such firms received 115 contracts, making up about 18 percent of all contractors.

These numbers don't meet the rally participants' 30-30 plan, but Yaphett El-Amin, executive director of the Mo-Kan Construction and Contractors Assistance Center, said strides are being made.

On the Missouri side of the bridge project, the highest percentage of minority and women workers in a contract was about 33 percent; the lowest minority participation was about 9 percent. On the Illinois side, the highest in a contract was 66 percent, while the lowest was none.

El-Amin said she also wants each trade working on the project to meet the 30-30 plan. Women and minorities were most underrepresented in the cement finishing and driving trades, state data said.

Lorne Allen stood beside 10 others in orange hard hats who graduated from the Missouri Department of Transportation-financed Construction Prep Center but have not found jobs.

Allen said employers have said he doesn't have enough experience. But he can't figure out where to get experience if he is not hired first.

The prep center has graduated about 800 students since 2000 and 40 since January of this year. All 40 are members of minority groups and include two women. Seven have been hired, but none of the 40 works on the Mississippi River bridge project, said Vivian Martain, prep center executive director. Contractors, she said, aren't hiring graduates because:

• They would start as apprentices, and contractors want to hire seasoned workers.

• Minorities and women historically have not been considered good workers.

The program works to debunk the worker quality myth, she said.

In the 12-week course, students can get demerits for wearing sagging pants and smoking. If they get three demerits, they're dismissed. Graduates are trained, certified, drug-free and ready to work, Martain said.

"There's more that we do on the East Side than party," El-Amin said.