Posted on 09/11/2006 11:12:26 AM PDT by laissez- faire
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley intends to use the first veto of his 17-year tenure to reject a living-wage ordinance aimed at forcing big-box retailers to pay wages of $10 an hour and health benefits equivalent to $3 an hour by 2010. Mr. Daley needs to convince only two aldermen to reverse course on the ordinance to ensure the veto isn't overridden. The aldermen voted 35-14 on July 26 to pass the ordinance. "I understand and share a desire to ensure that everyone who works in the city of Chicago earns a decent wage," the mayor wrote to the aldermen on Monday. "But I do not believe that this ordinance, well intentioned as it may be, would achieve that end. Rather, I believe that it would drive jobs and business from our city, penalizing neighborhoods that need additional economic activity the most." (See the veto letter.) Wal-Mart Stores Inc. intends to open its first store in Chicago late this month in the economically-depressed 37th ward. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has no other plans in the works for stores in Chicago. The ordinance would have required that retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores exceeding 90,000 square feet pay their Chicago employees wages of at least $9.25 an hour starting in July 2007 and escalating to $10 an hour by 2010. It also would have required that such retailers provide benefits such as health-care coverage equivalent to at least $1.50 an hour next July and escalating to $3 an hour by 2010. In the wake of the Chicago aldermen's passage of the ordinance, lawmakers in cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C, have mentioned interest in emulating the ordinance.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I believe Target cancelled construction of a store and opened one right on the other side of the city limits somewhere. Fact is, these large stores have more clout than the city. When you have thousands of stores in the world, you can tell one city to stuff it. Walmart already closed a store in Canada when forced unionizing was imminent.
Chicago's mayor has learned from the mistakes of others.
What a noble politician.
Eighteen months after the Chicago City Council torpedoed a South Side Wal-Mart, 24,500 Chicagoans applied for 325 jobs at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in south suburban Evergreen Park, one block outside the city limits.
The new Wal-Mart at 2500 W. 95th is one block west of Western Avenue, the city boundary.
Of 25,000 job applicants, all but 500 listed Chicago addresses, said John Bisio, regional manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart.
When they annouced that a Walmart would be opened on the south side, something like 20,000 people applied to work there before it was built (which it never was b/c the pols didn't want it).
I would say, "pragmatic". He chooses his battles. ;)
The fathead alderman who sponsored this bill represents Rogers Park, a good 20 miles away, up around Morse ave, and Touhy at 7200 North and the Lake. I can really see where it's his ox that's getting gored. Back when, mid to late '70's, Rogers Park was a largely Jewish neighborhood, with yuppies and students in the apartment buildings between Sheridan and the El. I understand it has gone Latino, now, but that's what Chicago neighborhoods do, shift from one ethnic and social majority to another.
This is a good, pragmatic move on Daley's part. A lot of the aldermen that voted for the "Big Box" ordinance later came out and said they were pressured by the unions. They didn't want it either.
I believe Daley is also looking at vetoing the "foie gras"(sp?) ordinance.
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