Unions, Wal-Mart reach deal wages that could bring second Walmart to city of Chicago

Unions, Wal-Mart reach deal on Chicago store

CHICAGO — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. overcame union opposition Thursday and got initial approval for a second store in Chicago — part of the giant retailer’s aspirations to build dozens of stores in the city that could provide jobs and groceries in poor neighborhoods.

The proposed South Side store, a supercenter that sells groceries, could open in the first quarter of 2012.

“We can move forward with redeveloping the South Side of Chicago, bringing jobs to the community, bringing fresh produce to the community and watch the South side move,” Alderman Anthony Beale said.

The Chicago City Council’s zoning committee approved the store after labor leaders dropped their opposition when they said Wal-Mart agreed to pay starting wages there of $8.75 an hour and give raises of 40 cents to 60 cents an hour after the first year. Illinois’ minimum wage is increasing from $8 to $8.25 on July 1.

Plans to let Wal-Mart expand inside the city limits had been stalled because of the union opposition over wages. The full City Council still must approve the store’s development.

Wal-Mart has had a tough time winning support in Chicago, but that seems to be easing with city officials anxious to create jobs in a bad economy. Four years ago, Mayor Richard Daley vetoed an ordinance that would have required mega-retailers like Wal-Mart to pay higher wages, saying it would cost the city jobs.

New jobs or not, Marissa Johnson, a paralegal and community activist who lives near the site of the proposed South Side store, won’t be shopping there.

She said the starting wage isn’t high enough for Wal-Mart employees to live on in Chicago and she’d rather go a couple miles away to shop at a grocery store where the workers are unionized.

“I’d rather travel the distance and go to a union shop then go to Walmart and know that these people are just yay above slavery — and that’s what it boils down to,” said Johnson, who was at City Hall protesting Wal-Mart.

Latasha Webster, 28, who’s unemployed with four children, feels differently. She said she would gladly take a Wal-Mart job because it’s tough to live on the food stamps and other welfare aid she receives.

“I have to struggle to get them clothes from time to time. If their grandmother don’t help me, we’re just stuck,” Webster said.

Wal-Mart said it hopes to open “several dozen” stores in Chicago over the next five years, creating 10,000 jobs in its stores and 2,000 unionized construction jobs to build the facilities.

Part of the chain’s selling point to city officials is that some of the stores would serve people in “food deserts” on the West and South sides where access to grocery stores is lacking, said Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo.

Restivo said the average hourly full-time wage at its first store on Chicago’s West Side is $11.77 an hour.

“Our folks at Wal-Mart are well treated, our associates are well-compensated and the majority of people that work for Wal-Mart like their jobs and like what they do for the company,” Restivo said.

Silencing labor opposition is sure to make the expansion easier. While store workers won’t be unionized, the deal on wages for the proposed South Side store sets a precedent as the company seeks to open more Chicago stores.

“We’re not going to go through this every time, but if Wal-Mart isn’t holding up to their end of the bargain, we’re going to make sure that our allies in the City Council know about it,” said Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.