Daley announces plans to build two new South Side Wal-Marts
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporterfspielman@suntimes.com March 16, 2011 3:42PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
The political stalemate that stalled Wal-Mart’s $1 billion Chicago expansion ended last summer, but you’d never know it by the way Mayor Daley played the race card Wednesday.
Even as he joined Wal-Mart in announcing plans to build two more South Side stores, Daley questioned why it took organized labor and its City Council allies six years to answer the call for jobs and shopping choices in inner-city neighborhoods starved for both.
Wal-Mart plans to open a 40,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market at 76th and Ashland next spring. A 30,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Express at 71st and Western, similar to a convenience store, is expected to open next winter. They bring to six the number of new Wal-Mart stores on the drawing board or under construction.
“Why was it during this whole debate all right to build in the suburban area, but there was an objection to build in the city when it came to the African-American community, Hispanic community or the inner-city?” Daley said.
“It took six years to get here. Now, who opposed you? Who still opposes you? You’d better figure that out because, when construction comes, I want to see men and women of color on this job.”
With nothing to lose and a political memory like an elephant, Daley was not about to let an opportunity go by to browbeat those who spent years browbeating him on the Wal-Mart issue. The City Council’s 2004 vote to approve Chicago’s first Wal-Mart in Austin gave birth to the big-box minimum wage ordinance snuffed out by Daley’s only veto.
Union leaders subsequently spent millions to elect a more labor-friendly City Council — and defeat a handful of Daley allies, whom the mayor singled out for praise on Wednesday.
“Real heroes in the community . . . stood up with me the first day — not the second day and not six years later, but the first day . . . and withstood all those who accused us together of doing a bad thing for the community,” the lame-duck mayor said.
As it turned out, Daley was just getting warmed up.
“Wal-Mart is a good corporation. It’s not a perfect corporation. No one’s perfect here anyway in life. And that’s why we have the pastors. And that’s why we pray,” Daley said, to the delight of a mostly black audience at 76th and Ashland.
But what about the deal that ended the standoff requiring Wal-Mart to pay its starting Chicago employees 50 cents above Illinois minimum wage? Didn’t union leaders ultimately get their members a better deal?
“I think it was just delayed. It was just the delay factor,” Daley said, dismissing the agreement he brokered.
“Citizens were telling aldermen all over the city, ‘Enough is enough. We need a job. We need grocery stores and we need good ones. We need stores that are gonna stay here and not close.’ ”
Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez scoffed at Daley’s claim that nothing was gained by the six-year stalemate.
“By waiting, we were able to secure a higher wage for people,” he said. “Wal-Mart could have offered that in year one, but they refused.”
It’s not the first time that Daley has played the race card on the Wal-Mart issue.
Five years ago, he denounced the big-box minimum wage ordinance as “redlining.”
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