Chicago City Council Passes Wage Ordinance

Actually quite a good thing. Major retailers can continue to do what they’ve always done if they don’t like it--hide out in the foothills. For those who decide to set up in Chicago let them pay a living wage.

Well Walmart Watch did it. Make some well placed donations and get the paid critics to play it out in the left leaning press. Save a few union jobs for retail workers in stores that are going out of business and send people that need jobs to the burbs. ... along with the shoppers and tax dollars. Too bad this will likely be thrown out by the courts.

Def good work but by 2010 the Waltons will have added billions more to their value while workers, environments, and overall morale in the US and abroad greatly plummets.

What can be done to make the change by 2007?

One more thing.

Let’s use the Canadians as an example for us all. According to the WalMart movie, one factory in Quebec drove out the giant by enlisting local laws pertaining to UNIONS!!  and nothing scares Wal-tation more than that so what can WE do to unionize them?

Anna-

I predict that Wal-Mart will not be affected at all by this law. They will merely open stores outside the city limits, giving jobs and tax revenues to the surrounding communities. Chicago’s loss will be their gain. That’s Wal-Mart’s MO anyway. The alderman have screwed over the working class in their city. The only people who will benefit will be those fortunate enough to have jobs.

This is not going to stop WM or Target from getting into this market of millions of customers!!!  What really scares WM and Target is that once they enter Chicago and start paying a far wage the rest of the country and their employees are going to demand the same law or not in every store they have!!!  I think I see the dominos starting to fall!!!

You are right this will not impact Walmart and Target. If it is not tossed out like in Maryland...they will just circle the city pulling shoppers and tax dollars.  Guess the council will have to explain why no job and gov assistance is better than having a job.

Now..now...they threatened to pull all their stores in IL should the city of Chicago follow through with this...let’s just hope they hold true to their word and get out....one state/city/municipaliry at a time...soon, they will serve those that make their goods in a communist country...their store colors will change to yellow and red, the star will become a sicle and a star.

The only good wal-mart is a shuttered wal-mart.  Only then does the city where it was start to recover socially and economically.

NTD-

It’s like A. Lottabull says, Wal-Mart and Target do not actually have to be in Chicago to get their share of the market.

Everyone says poor WM will now just move to the suburbs and pull the customers out there; wakeup idiots WM is already in the Suburbs and have been there for years!!!  So please quit saying they will just set up shop outside the City, it shows how uneducated you are!

The minute WM opens a store paying this wage rate will be the end to WM as we know it, every employee in the country will and should demand the same rate of pay.

By the way WM please stand behind what you say and pull out of Illinois, The land of Lincoln.

How is this helping the mom and pop stores if WM actually has to pay?  I see you all trying to say you are mom an pop friendly, but this will kill them if they can’t compete with WM on wages as well.  Will all those business’s pack up and leave?

NTD-

Obviously Wal-Mart is already in the suburbs, but does that mean there’s no room for more stores, particularly stores close to the Chicago city limits? It seems that there are many populous “border communities” that lack a store. Of course, let’s not disregard the legal challenge and other strategies for circumventing the law.

When did Wal-Mart threaten to pull out of Illinois? Target threatened to abandon Chicago, but the only threat I recall Wal-Mart making was to cancel plans for as many as 20 Chicago stores.

This is a bad thing to force retailers to pay higher wages.  With that comes higher prices we pay at that store to help pay the higher wages.  I would expect that from a liberal unionville like Chicago

Let WM pull out of Illinois, will IL all of the sudden fail to exist, hell no!  Other retailers will be in there before the last WM truck hits the state line!!!  I say call their bluff!  WM has been throwing that threat around for years as a method of demanding everything from free sewer to tax abetments from every little town in this country.

This is a good example of how WM believes they are so big and bad they can now threaten an ENTIRE State, what is next the entire Country?  It is time to send WM a message that they may be big but they are not the only business in town and to start packing their bags!!!

Interesting NTD seems to think that WM said they are leaving IL. Do not remember seeing that said by anyone. It would appear that they can serve us in Chicago—providing a good assortment of merchandise and now groceries...with out moving in to the city limits until Daily vetos or it is thrown out by the courts. Looks like the same 1,000’s and 1,000’s of people that applied at the WM that recently opened can only apply for a store in the burbs. They seem to think the pay and benefits are just fine.

No, A. Lottabull in Chicago, IL WM did not say they were pulling out of Illinois, they stated they were not going to bless Chicago with their presence if this law passed.  Guess what Chicago has been here a long time and will continue to be here a long time, with or without WM.

WM has threatened states just as I wrote, look at Maryland.  Is WM going to do the same to Illinois if Chicago does not get in line and give into WM?  First small town America gets pushed around now a major city is being threatened who’s next? That’s my point!

NTD seems to forget the Maryland law was thrown out last week and will likely not become law because it will not win on appeal. Seems like I read WM would consider the law when it opened new stores there as any business would need to consider. This was not a threat just a reality when gov changes the competitive landscape. But ... don’t guess WM has to be worry about that anymore. Our fair city will be blessed with WM, Target and others that are impacted when it is thrown out, when our council decides the taxes/jobs are needed more than the donations they recieve or when shoppers decide they are getting charged to much by the retailers that are in the city.