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In the last week, the blog Chicagoist has written what is one of the most in-depth looks at what it means for Americans to work at Walmart we’ve seen in the media this year.

In a three-part series, Chicagoist journalist Kevin Robinson, interviewed three current and former Walmart employees about what it is like for them to work for the world’s largest private employer and took a look at the labor practices that Walmart uses to create massive profits while at the same time depressing wages throughout entire industries.

That the Chicagoist is taking a look at Walmart is especially, well, appropriate. The Good Jobs Chicago coalition has been working for years make sure that if a Walmart is built in the South Side community of Englewood it will provide good jobs with living wages.

And we mean years.

If you live in Chicago (and I would imagine most regular Chicagoist readers do) you’ve been hearing about this proposed Walmart store for some time. A big-box wage ordinance that was aimed at the retailer was passed by the City Council and was then vetoed by Mayor Daley, his only veto to date (and he’s been in office for two decades). In 2007, a coalition of activists, unions, and community organizers pushed back against Daley, not supporting him for reelection, and helping to elect a number of pro-labor alderman. Now activists are looking to push a living wage ordinance that would require any company with 50 or more workers to pay the wage of at least $11.03 per hour if the company benefits from a city subsidy.

So Walmart might have been in the news a few times.

Part One of the Chicagoist series introduces the three associates, all working at Chicagoland area Walmart stores, how tough management can be as taskmasters, safety concerns (two of whom have suffered injuries on the job), and how Walmart’s push for low prices extends into how they pay their employees.

The second part addresses wage concerns and one of the scams that Walmart uses to increase profits. The scam? Pushing employee wages so low that many employees qualify for food stamps and public assistance. Specifically, the piece looks at how Walmart employees make such low wages that they are eligible for food stamps, which they then spend at Walmart to great advantage by the company.

Part Three examines Walmart’s labor practices, something near to our hearts here at Wake Up Walmart. That Walmart has one of the most aggressive anti-union practices in the world should come as no surprise, and Robinson includes some very interesting information about how those practices directly impact associates.

So if you have a few minutes, head over and read the articles. It is a very good introduction to how Walmart operates nationwide and provides good insight for anyone who might be hearing about a Walmart attempting to move into their town, or for Walmart associates to know that they are not alone when it comes to the kind of poor working conditions and employee treatment that occurs in Walmart stores everywhere.

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Walmart has a pretty spotty record when it comes to grassroots support groups. They can’t seem to resist the temptation to simply let PR firms make things up for them. There was the fake blog “Walmarting Across America” which, it was revealed, was actually organized by Walmart’s PR firm. The vehicle the “bloggers” used as well as their meals, expenses and gas, were all provided for them. There was the fake “community group” Working Families for Walmart, which was also run by a PR firm Walmart hired.

And now it seems that Walmart is doing the same thing in Chicago, where they’re struggling to get a foothold for their potential second store within city limits. Chicagoist, a prominent local blog, received some suspiciously pro-Walmart comments on their blog and decided to investigate. They found what seems to be theChicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Serafin & Associates are both working to push Walmart’s agenda in Chicago, and posing as a local community group.

The Chicagoland admitted to launching the site Our Community, Our Choice which proclaims, “Everyone else but Chatham and the South Side are making the decisions – It’s OUR CHOICE, NOT THEIRS.”

You should read the full article from Chicagoist, but the following section is particularly interesting:

Mike Mini told me that Wal-Mart is indeed a member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, that they have “a representative on the Government Affairs Committee,” and that “our process is kind of open. Any member that expresses an interest can come to meetings and work on issues that are important to them.” Is the Chamber working on behalf of Wal-Mart in the city? “We’re working on behalf of policies that we feel further business and commerce in the city.” Because I got to Mr. Mini through Our Community, Our Choice, I asked what his involvement in the site was. “It’s part of our advocacy effort to gain support,” and that “we set that up as a way to communicate with people. We were expecting this to come up for a vote before the council sooner, but obviously it’s been stalled.” I asked him if he was familiar with Serafin and Associates. “Yes, we have worked with them in our strategy sessions. We’ve worked with [Thomas] Serafin and his team.” When I told him that our site had gotten comments from the email address that led me to him and asked if he knew that it was being used to comment on blogs, he said “no, not that I’m aware of.” Are you surprised that an IP address from Serafin was being used that way? “No, not in particular.” Why not? “I really can’t comment without looking into it further.”

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What do Michael Bloomberg, Donald Trump, and Howard Brookins have in common? They all don’t understand how Wal-Math works. The New York City Mayor, the entrepreneur, and the Chicago Alderman all think that Wal-Mart means new jobs. But according to “Wal-Math,” one job created at Wal-Mart, minus one job destroyed at another retailer, equals one job.

On April 26, 2009, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart was still trying to use the jobs argument to open a second store in Chicago, Illinois. But the company has been facing a strong political wind of opposition in the Windy City. The retailer’s attempts to open superstores in Chicago has resulted in one open facility, and five years of spinning wheels. Wal-Mart and big city Mayors generally don’t get along. But Wal-Mart figures that as the economy slides downward, and more people lose their jobs, “Wal-jobs” will start to look better, and more cities will open up their doors to the discounter. Boston Mayor Tom Menino wouldn’t let Wal-Mart into the Downtown Crossing area. Wal-Mart’s forays into Brooklyn, New York have been very bloody. But last June, speaking at an analysts meeting, former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said that New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted a Wal-Mart. “I just talked to the Mayor,” Scott said, “who wants us. And Donald Trump called this week. And he’d like to have us. But in general, New York City hasn’t called and said please put a store there. Things get bad enough, they will.” This waiting for things to get “bad enough” is the core strategy in Chicago. 

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It’s like deja vu all over again. Alderman Brookins is still pushing for another Wal-Mart store in Chicago. This time he is ratcheting up the pressure on his fellow city council members to support the South Side project.

His message is clear: build a Wal-Mart store and soon there will be hundreds of high paying jobs and Chicago will become a retailing utopia.

Unfortunately, most Wal-Mart jobs are low wage and part-time. On our speak out website, veteran employees—some who have worked for the company over 10 years—describe how Wal-Mart is using the recession to cut hours like never before. As in...let’s hire 500 people to inflate our job numbers to the press, while cutting everyone to 10 hours a week.

As we outlined in our urban campaign, Wal-Mart is just not a good fit for the city of Chicago. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, “There is strong evidence that jobs created by Wal-Mart in metropolitan areas pay less and are less likely to offer benefits than those they replace.” In addition, analysis by Civic Economics concludes “For every $100 in consumer spending with a local firm, $68 remains in the Chicago economy...For every $100 in consumer spending with a chain firm, $43 remains in the Chicago economy.”

City leaders have done a good job so far of keeping another Wal-Mart out of Chicago. Now is not the time to give in to pressure from Wal-Mart lobbyists and Alderman Brookins.

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Originally posted at the Huffington Post, David Nassar writes that Wal-Mart in America’s big cities was a bad idea 5 years ago - and is still a bad idea today. That’s why Wal-Mart Watch activists in New York, Chicago and LA have sent over 25,000 letters to their city councils, and more than 1,500 state legislators around the country have been told by their constituents that new Wal-Mart plans should be called off until a worker safeguard like the Employee Free Choice Act is passed.

Wal-Mart in Chicago, New York and L.A. without EFCA? A bad idea

While most of America’s businesses are struggling through the recession, Wal-Mart and the Walton Family are raking in billions in profit. There’s nothing wrong with making money - but the rest of us are getting poorer as a result. Whether it is the low wages the Waltons pay, the taxes that the company expertly dodges or the subsidies Wal-Mart demands, the average American is helping the Walton family get richer every day.

That behavior has been a drag on Wal-Mart’s reputation and a primary reason why the company has had such a hard time entering high-income communities and first tier urban markets like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Now, however, it’s clear that Wal-Mart wants to use the cover of the recession and the promise of new jobs to enter the same communities that have rejected it in the past.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart hasn’t changed - only the economy has.

Given Wal-Mart’s low-margin, high-volume business model, it has always been dependent on rapid growth to stay alive. Over the past two decades, Wal-Mart’s growth plan has been simple: build as many supercenters in suburban and rural America as possible. But in the past few years, Wal-Mart has had to hit the brakes on its expansion after saturating most of the country and leaving itself few places to grow.

Still, America’s big cities remain largely untapped by the company. Millions of Americans live relatively Wal-Mart-free existences in the metropolitan areas of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, D.C. and Philadelphia, among others. Now that Wal-Mart sees a moment of weakness, it is poised and ready to strike.

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Not long ago, we reached out to our Wal-Mart Watch communities in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, asking them to contact their city councils and urge them to continue to oppose Wal-Mart’s moving into their cities. Combined, the populations of Chicago, NYC and LA house nearly 15 million people, or roughly 5% of the U.S. population.

For years, Wal-Mart has tried to build stores in those and other urban centers including Detroit, Washington, DC, and Boston. Building stores in these cities represents one of the last few rich avenues for domestic U.S growth open to Wal-Mart, but to this point it’s been one big, giant FAIL.

Since submitting our request, over 25,000 letters have been sent to the city councils in LA, New York and Chicago. And below is an example of the responses those letters have been generating - this one is from David Yassky, a member of the New York City Council currently running for New York City Comptroller:

Dear Neighbor:

Thank you for your concern regarding the recent proposals to open Wal-Mart stores in New York City. I agree that this is not the answer to our City’s economic problems, and I am concerned by the company’s poor track record regarding the treatment of its employees and its devastating effect on local businesses.  Small businesses are the life-blood of our City and as the Chair of the City Council’s Small Business Committee, I will fight against the development of new Wal-Mart stores that bring more harm than good to a community.

Moreover, I strongly support passing the Employee Free Choice Act. This legislation would be an important safeguard against employee abuses.  The Employee Free Choice Act would promote better working conditions and benefits for those who need it most:  New York’s working families.  I will continue to support this legislation and employee rights whenever I have the opportunity to do so. Thank you again for your interest.

Sincerely,
David Yassky
Council Member, 33rd District

We’ll keep updating you as we continue to get more responses. Until then, you can check out more on Wal-Mart’s Urban Problem here. What these cities need now are jobs that pay a living wage, good health benefits that keep people healthy and productive (and off public health care), and thriving small businesses that give back to their communities. Wal-Mart need not apply.

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Today, Wal-Mart Watch is launching a new web page - “Wal-Mart’s Urban Problem” - which looks at the company’s attempts to get back in to New York, Chicago and L.A. Over the next few weeks we’re going to make sure to keep you as informed as possible on this issue, and give our readers every opportunity to take action to stop it.

If you’ve been reading the blog, it’s no secret to you. For years, Wal-Mart has tried and failed to build stores in America’s biggest cities.

Why they want to build in cities like New York, Chicago and L.A. is no secret either. Wal-Mart has expanded to nearly every corner of the country, and America’s untapped urban cities represent the last real avenue for growth - and perhaps the greatest challenge that the company still faces.

In an April 2006 speech in Chicago, Lee Scott declared that his company wanted to be an “urban pioneer” and that Wal-Mart “has never been afraid to invest in communities that are overlooked by other retailers.”

Unfortunately for Lee Scott, it didn’t come true. Wal-Mart was notably shut out of Chicago after refusing to pay higher wages, but also has continued to be stonewalled in New York City and central Los Angeles - as well as Detroit, Washington, DC, and Boston.

Lee Scott was so frustrated with the failures that he famously went to New York City and said “I don’t care if we are ever here...I don’t think it’s worth the effort.”

But now that the economy has turned down, Wal-Mart smells a weakness and wants another shot. Wal-Mart has negotiations underway for a store in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of central L.A., is eying up to 5 stores in Chicago, and is rumored to be considering several locations in New York City.

Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, the company hasn’t changed – only the economy has.

We’re confident that Americans won’t be fooled into believing that Wal-Mart has changed its low-wage, low-benefit business model. Without any assurance that Wal-Mart will be a responsible company, letting Wal-Mart build in America’s biggest cities would be a major mistake.

A Case For Employee Free Choice

The only thing on the table that would assure Wal-Mart respect New York workers is the Employee Free Choice Act. EFCA is a bill that would finally allow Wal-Mart workers to freedom they deserve to join a union – without harassment or intimidation from their managers. 

If you live in or around New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, send an email to your city council and let them know how you feel (by clicking the aforementioned links.) Your city council members can’t pass EFCA themselves, but they can send a strong message to Wal-Mart and to Congress that they won’t even discuss a potential Wal-Mart plan until the Employee Free Choice Act is passed. 

Our big cities are special places - let’s make sure they stay that way.

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WAL-MART NOT GIVING UP ON CHICAGO
    

• Wal-Mart Not Giving Up on South Side [Chicago Public Radio]
  Chicago got its first Wal-Mart store, on the city’s West Side, just three years ago. Unions and grassroots activists fought the controversial big box coming within city limits.
  

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Chicago Alderman Howard Brookins is bracing for “a floor fight” on an amended redevelopment agreement he introduced Wednesday, which would open the door for Wal-Mart to build its second Chicago store. Last year, a similar request to build a supercenter was rejected by the planning and development commissioner, a fate Brookins hopes to make moot this year. The Chicago Sun-Times has the skinny:

Last year, then-Planning and Development Commissioner Arnold Randall rejected a request for administrative approval to build a 150,000 square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter on the site of the old Ryerson Steel plant at 83rd and Stewart. The developer responded by putting the property up for sale. Brookins’ proposal would strip the commissioner of the power to veto stores over 100,000 square feet.

So, Alderman Brookins is looking to get around commissioner approval by making it ultimately unnecessary - if the planning and development commissioner can’t veto a project, why run a development proposal by the administration in the first place? And Brookins’ reasoning for introducing the measure?

“I’m doing it because I can’t get any other movement any way else.”

Makes sense. In reality, there appears to be much more going on in the Windy City than a simple controversy over a new Wal-Mart supercenter. Chicago is bidding for the 2016 Olympics, and Mayor Daley and his administration seem to want to avoid tackling divisive issues this calendar year while the International Olympic Committee reviews the city’s bid.

“The timing is pretty bad. We’re trying to keep some peace with the unions. We’ve got an October deadline with the [International] Olympic Committee. I don’t think we want to show any problems here with the city and our workforce,” said Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s unofficial Council floor leader.

Regardless, earlier today Mayor Daley intimated that Alderman Brookins doesn’t have much of a chance for his proposal to go through anyway.

“This is not gonna fly. You know that. They don’t have enough votes,” Daley said.

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On Sunday, Bill Moyer’s Journal profiled James Thindwa - a community organizer who for years has been fighting Wal-Mart for justice in Chicago. He was at the heart of the battle to demand that retailers like Wal-Mart pay a living wage to their workers. In case you don’t remember, the living wage passed the city vote. Unfortunately, Mayor Richard Daley, Jr. convinced enough Alderman to change their votes that the total vote was under the veto-proof majority.

But Thindwa didn’t give up. He and other labor activists in Chicago campaigned against some of the Alderman - and defeated enough that he now believes they have enough votes to reintroduce and pass the living wage ordinance again this year. And that’s more important than ever, given that plans have once again surfaced to once again build a Wal-Mart in Chicago.

Watch the whole thing, it’s great.

James Thindwa can remind us all why we have been fighting for so long to make Wal-Mart a better company, and why we’re fighting for EFCA right now. If there’s anyone who could represent the movement against the Wal-Martization of Chicago - or anywhere - it’s James Thindwa.

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The following post appeared originally on the Battlemart Blog.

In Chicago, Illinois, Wal-Mart doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the winds blow. On February 6, 2009, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart wanted to increase its one-store presence in the windy city. But stiff political winds are likely to continue to blow the company off course. In May of 2008, Wal-Mart decided to abandon efforts to locate a store on the South Side of Chicago. The corporation said it was “turning its attention to a backup plan of opening stores just outside city limits.”

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had reportedly advised Wal-Mart that he didn’t want controversial headlines about big box battles in his city while his Administration pursues an effort to host the 2016 Olympics in Chicago. That decision won’t be made by the Olympic Committee until the fall of 2009. If true, that put a strangle hold on any Wal-Mart projects in the short-term.

In March of 2008, city officials denied Wal-Mart’s request to build a 150,000 s.f. store in the huge Chatham Market project, which spreads out over 50 acres on the site of a former steel plant, with a total of 418,000 s.f. of retail space. Chicago’s Planning Commissioner notified Archon, an Irving, Texas-based developer that Wal-Mart would not be allowed to open at Chatham Market as proposed. Despite this history, rumors about Wal-Mart’s renewed interest in Chicago began surfacing again last month. After losing its battle at the Chatham site, Archon, which is owned by the Goldman Sachs Group, put Wal-Mart’s piece of the southside
property up for sale, hunting for a new, and less-controversial anchor.

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“We will push ourselves and play offense where appropriate, and we will win in every business that we operate around the world...we’re going to do all the right things to continue our momentum and to widen the gap between the competition and us...”

-Mike Duke

America is struggling through the recession, and Wal-Mart is faring better than most companies - that’s the conventional wisdom.

But not nearly the whole story.

Make no mistake about it: Wal-Mart isn’t surviving the recession, it loves it. While other companies go under, Wal-Mart’s revenue and profit just set all-time records at $400 billion and $13 billion, respectively. Former CEO Lee Scott is riding into the sunset with a $200 million dollar fortune. The Walton Family is, as always, literally rolling in cash—with a net worth of over $100 billion.

And that’s not the half of it. The weak economy is giving Mike Duke and Wal-Mart an opportunity for a enormous growth, and it’s becoming clear that the company is using the smoky cover of recession to run a power play on the world economy that’s unprecedented, even for Wal-Mart.

The main three tenets of its plan are to:

1) Make a power grab at other customers and retailers.

It is common knowledge that Wal-Mart is seeing hundreds of thousands of new U.S. customers who are “trading-down” to shop at Wal-Mart, though they’d prefer not to. It’s yet to be seen whether Wal-Mart will be able to keep them once the tough times end, but company executives have said repeatedly that they plan to.

Circuit City, Mervyns, Linens & Things and untold numbers of independent retailers have all gone under in the last year. Deutsche Bank recently estimated that the retailers who survive the recession will feast on $20 billion in market share left by retailers who don’t survive. Where will the business go? Is there any doubt what company aims to eat the lion’s share of that $20 billion?

2) Expand internationally.

In the past few months, Wal-Mart has opened wholesale stores in India, moved into Chile, opened an office in Russia, and announced it would move into Peru. The company knows its largest growth potential lies abroad, and it reinforced its commitment to international growth by naming former international head Mike Duke to CEO, and naming up-and-coming (and future CEO?) Doug McMillan to take Duke’s old job.

3) Expand domestically into markets that would otherwise reject it.

We’re by no means the first ones suggesting this. While the company has slowed its U.S. growth overall, there’s no doubt that Wal-Mart is licking its chops at the chance to get into communities that have been rejecting it for various reasons for years. 

Only months after being shut out of Chicago after years of resistance, Wal-Mart has somehow worked a deal with local politicians and is eyeing 12 different locations within the city. Wal-Mart is making little secret of its designs on Washington, D.C., and is trying to work its way back into untold numbers of communities under the cover of recession.

In several years, our economy will be getting healthy and sustainable. Hopefully we won’t be looking back in horror at what we let Wal-Mart do in the meantime. 

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Wal-Mart; Chicago.

Chicago; Wal-Mart.

Now that you’ve been reintroduced, will you be friends this time?

Time will tell, but opinions on whether the mega-retailer would be good for the Windy City continue to be sharply divided.

From KXMC CBS 13 [North Dakota]:

Because it’d be just awful if the retail giant moved into the city and started providing low-income families with jobs and access to low-priced goods. Big news in bad times: A major retailer wants to bring thousands of jobs to Chicago. But Wal-Mart’s offer is running into the same roadblocks it hit several years ago…

We’ll leave the question of why a North Dakota station is eyeing Chicago alone for now, beyond the fact that they might have Wal-Mart on the brain. Here’s the opposing view courtesy of BloggingStocks:

Whether Chicago and other cities should open their doors to Wal-Mart is a matter that has been debated for literally millions of hours. But it would be a shame to see the city completely abandon whatever principles it claims in order to raise quick cash in a tough economy. But if the city is going to try to make a deal with Wal-Mart, I know an unemployed former governor who is a master negotiator.

The last time Wal-Mart backed down from Chicago, it was because the retailer refused to agree to pay its workers under living wage legislation. This time, the question seems to be - Should Chicago take the quick jobs now, with all the negatives that come with them...or should it hold out for something better? Time will tell…

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Despite being shut out of Chicago after years of attempts to crack the windy city, Wal-Mart is back at it again. A report from the Chicago Tribune today tells us that the company is in talks to get “as many as five” stores approved for Chicago - citing “the need for new investment to boost the sagging local economy.”

Al Norman’s post below is cross-posted on the Battlmart Blog

Wal-Mart would not comment publicly on this story---but they’ve clearly been talking to the politicians behind the scenes. The Chicago Tribune reports today that the giant retailer wants to give its one store in the windy city some company. Despite the stiff winds that have blown against them, Wal-Mart management is trying to fly in below the O’Hare radar.

On May 11, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that Wal-Mart had decided to abandon efforts to locate a store on the South Side of Chicago, and that the corporation was “turning its attention to a backup plan of opening stores just outside city limits.” The Tribune reported that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had advised Wal-Mart that he didn’t want controversial headlines about Wal-Mart battles in his city while his Administration pursues an effort to host the 2016 Olympics in Chicago. That decision won’t be made by the Olympic Committee until the fall of 2009. If true, that put a strangle hold on any Wal-Mart projects. In March of 2008, city officials denied Wal-Mart’s request to build a 150,000 s.f. store in the huge Chatham Market project, which spreads out over 50 acres on the site of a former steel plant, with a total of 418,000 s.f. of retail space.

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For a long time now, Wal-Mart has been eagerly coveting the northern urban markets such as New York City and Chicago. Unfortunately for the big, fumbling retailer, neither city (the first and and third largest by population in the country) wants anything to do with Wal-Mart’s low paying jobs and sprawling supercenter formats.  Despite years of courtship, Wal-Mart has repeatedly failed to establish itself as a worthwhile business partner to the labor rights conscious cities.

In 2007, New York City Central Labor Council’s executive director said of Wal-Mart: “We don’t care if they’re never here… We have great supermarkets and great retail outlets in New York. We don’t need Wal-Mart.” A humiliated Lee Scott retorted “I don’t care if we are ever here.” Down and out in New York, Wal-Mart decided to renew its pursuit of Chicago, a city where Wal-Mart had once dreamed of building 20 stores.

But Wal-Mart’s big plans were once again shattered in 2008.  In May, Wal-Mart ended its quest to scar Chicago’s cityscape with its poverty promoting supercenters, losing out to union campaigns for higher wages and better treatment of workers. 

Now, after all its disappointment, Wal-Mart is back in Chicago talking about how much money it has, hoping to win over recession plagued city officials with talks of sales tax - an unconvincing argument considering how much the state would spend to insure Wal-Mart workers who don’t qualify or can’t afford the companies “health care”.  Hopefully for workers, city officials will see through Wal-Mart’s attempts to crack the market.

Wal-Mart says it created $5.3 million in sales taxes with Chicago store [Chicago Tribune]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s only Chicago store generated $5.3 million in state and local sales taxes its second year in business, company and city officials said Wednesday.

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