Wal-Mart, The Community & Organized Labor

FLY ON THE WAL
UNDERCOVER AT WAL-MART, THE HEARTLAND SUPERSTORE THAT MAY SAVE THE ECONOMY

Hurdles For Wal-Mart In Chicago Again

CHICAGO (CBS) ―

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The first Wal-Mart in Chicago opened in 2006 on the West Side.

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Big news in bad times: A major retailer wants to bring thousands of jobs to Chicago. But Wal-Mart's offer is running into the same roadblocks it hit several years ago. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine is asking whether it's a gift from heaven or a deal with the devil.

You'd think the city would be begging people like Wal-Mart to bring jobs to Chicago. Not putting up barriers. Well, think again.

There's quite a crowd on a rainy night at Chicago's only Wal-Mart; it's on the west side, built in one of the areas known as food deserts, where there are few other options for people.

"Now that it's here in our own community, we're hoping to keep the money inside the community," said Kendall Joseph.

More than 400 people work at Chicago's Wal-Mart, and are paid an average of $11.25 an hour. Success on the west side prompted Wal-Mart to propose another store, on the south side, in Alderman Howard Brookins' ward.

"The attorneys wrote the letter saying we would like to go to 83rd and Stewart last year in 2008," Ald. Brookins said.

The city said no.

The city's former Planning commissioner says Wal-Mart wasn't exactly turned down, just told to go back to City Council, where it lost a bruising battle years before. Wal-Mart went elsewhere. Now, it has sent feelers to the city about five new stores, which will cost $120 million to build, with union labor, and eventually creating 2,500 new retail jobs.

City labor leaders still say, "No, thanks."

"I wish that they would come, but I wish they would sit down and have the ability to sit and have a discussion - frank and open and honest," said Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon. "Not this part-time stuff and we're not paying benefits. For a guy like myself, principles are principles.

"A job's a job. People got families, a lot of people ain't working, they're relying on unemployment," said Luther Aviles. "It's hard out here."

And if the battle gets to City Hall, the same opponents will be waiting there too.

"The fact of the matter is what do I tell a person who works at the other big box retailer that we'll let Wal-Mart come in, but your wages are going to be cut to compete with Wal-Mart or you might lose a job," Ald. Joe Moore said.

The fact is wage scales are falling everywhere. And someone with a family to feed tonight isn't really thinking about jobs that might be lost tomorrow.