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Wal-Mart Wins in Chicago—But the Battle Isn’t Over |
The Chicago City Council yesterday failed to override a veto of what would have been the nation’s first living wage ordinance aimed at forcing big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot to pay their employees a living wage and provide health care.
The council had passed the legislation by a 35–14 margin several weeks ago and should have been able to sustain a veto issued by Mayor Richard Daley (D) earlier this week—but “pressure from the mayor and intense lobbying by the national retailers and local business groups scraped away enough support to uphold the veto,” according to The New York Times.
It was an extraordinary shift from just weeks ago, when the aldermen voted 35 to 14 in favor of the measure, which was to place Chicago at the forefront of nationwide efforts to demand more for employees of large retail stores, including Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot.
The living wage law, pushed for by union and community activists, would have applied to retailers with stores larger than 90,000 square feet that are part of companies with at least $1 billion in sales annually. Under the bill, minimum hourly wages in those stores would jump to $9.25 in 2007 and to $10 in 2010 and will be indexed to inflation in the years after. Firms also must pay $1.50 an hour in benefits—such as health care—starting in 2007 and $3 an hour in 2010.
Led by the Chicago Federation of Labor and Industrial Union Council, union activists say they will re-introduce a similar proposal, which is supported by the majority of Chicago residents, soon after a new City Council is elected in February. According to the Chicago Federation of Labor:
Despite a million-dollar media blitz and vocal opposition from Mayor Daley, an overwhelming majority of likely voters in Chicago support a living wage law for large retailers, according to a citywide poll released at a rally at City Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 30.
According to the poll, 71 percent of Chicagoans favor the Big Box Living Wage ordinance, which would require stores like Home Depot, Target and Wal-Mart to pay a living wage of $10 an hour and provide $3 an hour in benefits like health insurance by 2010.
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