No Wal-Mart vote till after Olympics decision

Chicago City Council delay will ensure that

The International Olympic Committee will decide whether Chicago will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games before the City Council decides whether Walmart can build its second store here.

That much was virtually guaranteed by a parliamentary maneuver executed today by two powerful aldermen with close ties to organized labor: Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) and Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th).

It happened at a Rules Committee meeting called to consider an amended redevelopment agreement that would have paved the way for Chicago’s second Wal-Mart — and first super-center that sells groceries — at a former Chatham industrial site at 83rd and Stewart.

Instead of considering the ordinance sponsored by local Ald. Howard Brookins (21st), Mell punted the hot potato over to the Finance Committee.

With the Council set to recess until September, that virtually guarantees that the Wal-Mart controversy will be put off until after the IOC decides between Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo or Rio de Janeiro.

Asked whether the matter would come up before the IOC’s Oct. 2 vote, Mell said, “I doubt that it will.”

Burke made no bones about his freeze-the-ball strategy. Pressed on how quickly the matter could pass. He replied, “It won’t be short.”

Burke also left little doubt about where he stands — with organized labor and against Walmart.

“Chicago is a strong union town. ... If every other organization can agree to [make it easier for unions to organize], why can’t Walmart? They can build 14 stores here. All they have to do is make a commitment to the rights of working men and women in Chicago to organize,” Burke said.

The alderman said he understands the argument that any job is better than no job. But, he said, “If Walmart can come into Chicago and operate on a non-union basis, then how can Jewel and Dominicks and the other food chains continue to have union men and women?”

The City Council’s 2004 vote to approve Walmart’s first and only store in Austin gave birth to the big box minimum wage ordinance that was later snuffed out by Mayor Dale’s only veto. The last thing the mayor wants before the IOC’s Oct. 2 vote is another donnybrook with organized labor that would jeopardize the labor peace he has crafted to bolster Chicago’s Olympic bid.

Walmart has been turning up the heat on Chicago aldermen to approve the Chatham super-center, using every possible political pressure tactic.

They include: robo-calls; “push-polls” tailor-made to demonstrate public support for Walmart expansion; picketing aldermanic offices and City Hall; a website that helps Chicagoans contact their aldermen and a farmer’s market on the Chatham site to demonstrate the demand for fresh fruit and vegetables in the so-called “food desert.”

The pressure tactics have backfired with Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th), who said she has “hardened” her opposition to Walmart.

“They picketed my office and that was offensive to me. ... It’s not winning any more friends for their position,” she said.

Lyle said her opposition to Walmart is based — not on doing labor’s bidding, but on concerns about traffic and the fate of small businesses in, what she called, a “two-mile radioactive zone” around 83rd and Stewart.

“If every small business in my community is gone at the end of three years, I’m gonna get the blame because of this vote they want me to take for Walmart,” Lyle said.