3rd Chicago Walmart may snag on wages

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s quest to open a third store in Chicago may hinge on whether the retailer is promising to pay workers at least 50 cents more than the Illinois minimum wage.

The size of paychecks was at the center of the city council's vote last month to approve a second store. Aldermen and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said the retailer committed to $8.75 an hour. Steve Restivo, a Wal-Mart spokesman, wouldn't confirm a starting wage as the retailer pushes to build several dozen Chicago stores.

"I am concerned with our willingness to just rush in and sign off on all these other Wal-Marts," Alderman Joe Moore said in a telephone interview. It would be wiser for the city to wait and see how the second store, on the far south side, affects surrounding businesses and the neighborhood, he said.

Moore said he received a three-page opinion from the city's law department today stating that Wal-Mart may have entered into an oral contract to pay workers more than the state's $8.25-an- hour minimum.

"It appears they're saying there's no written agreement," said Moore, who was the sole dissenting vote when the council's finance committee last week approved a third store, in the West Chatham neighborhood.

Vote Delay

He said he hadn't decided whether to follow through on his threat to delay a council vote tomorrow on the Chatham store if the law department found the $8.75-an-hour wage unenforceable.

Restivo has said the largest U.S. retailer made no deals on what to pay workers.

"Our goal is to offer a competitive wage," he said in a telephone interview.

Wal-Mart won approval for the second store on June 30, four years after opening its first. Prior to the 50-0 vote, several aldermen raised questions about the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer's stated plans to add stores throughout the nation's third-largest city.

Two aldermen could delay the Wal-Mart vote with a motion to defer, Moore said. He said he is "fairly confident" he could find a colleague to help him stall the vote.

The Wal-Mart workers wouldn't be represented by a union. The local UFCW declined to disclose what its union grocery workers make in Chicago.

"Yes, there is a wage rate," Elizabeth Drea, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-area UFCW, said in a telephone interview. "But there are also things like paid vacation time, days off and guaranteed hours."

'Wear the Jacket'

While Mayor Richard M. Daley could approve the Chatham Wal- Mart himself because of an earlier redevelopment agreement, he doesn't want to "wear the jacket" for Wal-Mart's expansion, Moore said.

"He wants to share it with the rest of the council," Moore said.

The mayor urged the city council to approve the third Wal- Mart in a statement last week.

"These stores can help us build a better future for neighborhoods and working families in Chicago," he said. Pete Scales, a spokesman for the mayor, said it wasn't known whether Daley will approve the store if Moore delays the council's decision.

Retail and food service spending in the U.S. was down 0.5 percent in June, compared with the previous month, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales at Wal-Mart stores open at least a year have dropped for four straight quarters.

The Chatham store, which would include a full grocery section, could be ready by 2011, Howard Brookins, the alderman for the neighborhood, said in a telephone interview.

"With each new store that opens here and every new job created, Chicago not only moves one step closer towards returning to economic prosperity, but also sets an example for other cities that face similar challenges," Restivo wrote in a statement released after the finance committee's approval.