Wal-Mart a Topic in Yesterday's City Council Meeting

By Kevin Robinson in News on Oct 8, 2009 4:00PM

With the Olympics out of the way and Mayor Daley's imposed delay on a vote over the proposed second Wal-Mart store in Chicago, 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins has decided it's time to up the ante on bringing the global mega-retailer into his neighborhood. Setting a stuffed hound in front of 14th Ward Ald. and Chairman of the council's Finance Committee Ed Burke, Brookins vowed to "hound" Burke until the issue was brought to a vote. “Not after 40 years,” Burke said. “Woof, woof.”

But bringing the supercenter store to Chicago is not joke to either Brookins, Burke, the mayor or supporters and opponents of the controversial retailer. Burke has made it clear that Wal-Mart won't get a foothold in Chicago if it won't come to some sort of agreement with the union that represents grocery workers in Chicago. “They could open 14 stores here in Chicago if they would come to some kind of peaceful agreement with organized labor,” he said. “If they indeed are asserting that they’re paying at least as much to their service workers as the Jewel and Dominicks chains do, there should be a format within which a written agreement can exist.” Citing a living wage agreement that Wal-Mart signed onto in New Jersey, Burke suggested that Wal-Mart might be making progress on wage and labor standards. “Perhaps they are coming closer to recognizing that this is a labor-oriented city and organized labor has to be respected,” he said.

That may be closer to reality than people think. Progress Illinois is reporting that Good Jobs Chicago has been quietly lobbying city aldermen to support a community benefits agreement that would force Wal-Mart to pay a living wage, offer benefits to their employees, afford them the right to organize and sell locally grown food.