Posted: June 30, 2010 03:24 PM
Wal-Mart may be coming to Chicago, and soon.
Union opposition has kept Wal-Mart at bay for the last six years, but when the company agreed to pay entry-level workers 50 cents above the minimum wage, unions were suddenly all ears. Last week, the City Council zoning committee finally signed off on a Wal-Mart store on Chicago's South Side.
It helped that Wal-Mart has estimated it would add 12,000 jobs over the next five years in Chicago, where the unemployment rate is more than 10 percent. There are plenty of debates going on over whether Wal-Mart is really the answer to unemployment on the South Side. One persistent argument against the company is that Wal-Mart is bad news for the mom-and-pop stores, and that the many job gains for the city will be offset by the fall-out for the owners of small businesses.
I have a family friend down on the South Side named Brenda, who is unemployed and on disability benefits because of several medical maladies. Brenda lives in West Pullman, not far from where Wal-Mart proposes to set up shop.
Brenda was recently wearing a brand new white jumpsuit. When she was complimented on the suit, she proudly said that it was "designer" and that she had bought it for $268. The suit was clearly worth much less.
