Chicago Wal-Mart Vote Once Again Delayed, Amid Labor Activist Resistance

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6062/chicago_wal-mart_vote_once_again_delayed_amid_labor_activist_resistance/

Monday June 7 9:14 am

By Kari Lydersen


Wal-Mart employee Anna Hines walks through the parking lot of the only Wal-Mart in Chicago, Ill., which opened in September 2006. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images)


CHICAGO—Four years ago a bitter battle over a proposed Wal-Mart on Chicago’s South Side provoked a Big Box Ordinance mandating a $13 an hour living wage for such stores. The ordinance passed but was vetoed by Mayor Richard M. Daley, sparking a successful campaign by organized labor to oust local politicians who didn’t support the ordinance.

Now another proposed Wal-Mart, also on a vacant former industrial parcel on the South Side, is again fueling bitter debates about how low civic and labor leaders should lower the bar to bring jobs and retail space to a disinvested community. The Wal-Mart Supercenter is planned as the anchor for Pullman Park, a retail center near the former site of the railcar factory and company town run by legendary anti-union magnate George Pullman.

On June 3 the Chicago City Council delayed a planned zoning committee vote on the Wal-Mart proposal, after alderman Anthony Anthony Beale refused to meet with or even accept a letter from local activists in his office. The police were called to arrest the residents, including one who gave birth early the next morning.

Critics want Wal-Mart at the very least to guarantee wages starting at $11 an hour and ramping up, either through specific wage requirements or commitments related to Illinois' minimum wage

That city council committee vote had previously been delayed a month after Wal-Mart officials had started talks with labor leaders regarding their demands for a living wage, local hiring and other guarantees. But the talks stalled, hence public and union pressure on aldermen to vote down the proposal at Thursday’s zoning meeting.


FULL story at link.