Webloggin » Chicago Mayor Daley Defeats City Council Attack on Big Business

A divided City Council today sustained Mayor Daley’s first-ever veto by a 31 to 18 vote: Wal-Mart and 42 other big box retailers in Chicago will not have to pay their employees at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010. - Chicago Sun Times

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley came out swinging today against an big unions who were backing the anti-business “living wage” ordinance that the Chicago City council tried to force down big box stores such as Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot and Target.

Armed with the votes he needs to sustain his first veto, Mayor Daley accused organized labor on Tuesday of forcing the issue on a big-box minimum wage ordinance only after giant retailers started coming to impoverished black neighborhoods.

Implied, but not stated, by Daley on the eve of Wednesday’s City Council override vote was that union leaders somehow consider African Americans expendable.

The ordinance requiring big-box retailers to pay employees at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010 was pushed through the City Council only after Wal-Mart got zoning approval to build its first Chicago store in Austin and suffered a one-vote defeat in Chatham.

This is exactly right. The neighborhoods that need the jobs the most would have been hurt the worst. The unions and City Councilmen are vying for political power at the expense of the little guy they pretend to represent.

A diverse coalition that came together to oppose Wal-Mart — the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Service Employees International Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Jobs for Justice, ACORN and the Grass Roots Collaborative — stayed together to push for higher retail wages.

On July 26, their efforts paid off. Over Daley’s strenuous objections, the City Council voted 35 to 14 to require the 43 Chicago retailers with more than 90,000 square feet of space owned by companies with more than $1 billion in sales to pay their employees at least $10 an hour in wages and $3 in benefits by 2010. A $9.25-an-hour wage would have kicked in next July.

The move by the socialists on the Chicago city council was unique in that it only targeted the most successful businesses for basically being successful. Other cities such as San Franciso targeted all businesses. This is another example of big city liberals fostering an anti-Corporate climate despite all the help these retailers do for impoverished neighborhoods. These retailers provide thousands of entry level jobs, bring up property values and provide products at an affordable price for everyone. This concept is aparrently beyond the comprehension of those who would rather force the business out than have the jobs in the city.

The proposed ordinance prompted Mayor Daley to issue his first veto in over 17 years as mayor of the Windy City. And now you know why it is windy because Council members who thought they would twist Daley’s arm while he was politically vulnerable were dealt a blow today as original supporters of the bill defected back to the mayor’s side.

Wal-Mart and other big box retailers played hard ball on this issue by cancelling plans to expand in the city and move right outside to nearby suburbs. Target has pulled out of a 32-acre shopping mall at 119th and Marshfield and will likely cut and run from the North Side’s Wilson Yards project as well, city officials said Wednesday. Wal-Mart announced that they were putting 5 new stores on hold and released potential plans to provide busses to the suburban stores.

Beautiful Move by Wal-Mart

Those in the Chicago area remember the last time the Chicago City Council tried to twist the arm of Wal-Mart. The City Council thought they gained a win by shooting down a new South Side location over similar attempts to force wages. Wal-Mart retaliated by opening a new store one block west of the Chicago city limits. The end result was that the new Wal-Mart received over 25,000 applications for 350 jobs and the city stands to lose millions of dollars in tax revenues.

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.

The part of the story they leave out is that everbody is ignoring is that Wal-Mart already pays an average of $10.25 an hour; well over the Illinois minimum wage of $6.50.

For some unknown reason liberals never admit defeat even when their stance is not popular among the people. The City Council members have been hitting the street with the gamut of left wing talking points.

Alderman Todd Stroger said Wednesday he still supports the ordinance.

“Companies that make a lot of profit need to share those profits with their employees and they should try to make sure that they can pay them a wage that’s livable and give them some type of health insurance,” said Stroger.

They even went as far as bringing in the Mayors of Santa Fe and San Francisco to tout the supposed successes of their socialist wage controls. But success is interpreted differently by different people. San Francisco and Santa Fe residents don’t have the same surrounding suburban business environment in the suburbs. Thus there is less choice and that affords the cities to successfully implement their wage controls.

Mayor Daley was not pleased as he slammed the invading mayors for interfering in Chicago politics.

“We’ve got more work going [on] downtown in one block than . . . those cities combined. One block — not two blocks or three blocks,” Daley said.

“They should go back and help their own cities….I’ll compare my record to Santa Fe any time and San Francisco. I respect the mayors there. But you manage your own city. We manage here.”

True to form the libs will try again and again unless the people vote them out of office.

“We are going to write another ordinance,” said Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th). “We are going to start over again. … Since everybody was complaining that this would only attack (big-box retailers), maybe we will go ahead and go after everybody this time and say everybody has to pay” a city minimum. Only small store operators would be exempt under such a measure, Lyle said.

This is yet another reason why it is important to vote in all elections. American’s are constantly under attack from brain dead politicians who think that political power is an invitation to control all aspects of our lives. Liberals are among the worst of them.

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