Daley: Race spurred big-box effor
September 13, 2006
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Armed with the votes he needs to sustain his first veto, Mayor Daley accused organized labor on Tuesday of forcing the issue on a big-box minimum wage ordinance only after giant retailers started coming to impoverished black neighborhoods.
Implied, but not stated, by Daley on the eve of Wednesday's City Council override vote was that union leaders somehow consider African Americans expendable.
The ordinance requiring big-box retailers to pay employees at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits by 2010 was pushed through the City Council only after Wal-Mart got zoning approval to build its first Chicago store in Austin and suffered a one-vote defeat in Chatham.
Next step: Take issue to the voters
What's next for the big box movement after the City Council sustains Mayor Daley's veto? How about a citywide referendum on the Feb. 27 ballot.
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said she plans to introduce a referendum at today's Council meeting to prove a poll showing 71 percent support for the "living wage" was no fluke. If the poll and referendum results mirror each other, supporters plan to introduce a citywide minimum wage ordinance not confined to big box stores.
"This is not a defeat. This is just a delay. We're not going to go away," Lyle said.
Fran Spielman
"Not one mayor or alderman has ever been threatened in the suburban area. ... Only on the West Side. Only on the South Side," Daley told cheering supporters at 119th and Marshfield, vacant site of a Target store placed on hold after the City Council's 35-to-14 vote in favor of the ordinance.
"It was all right for the North and Southwest sides [of Chicago] to get big boxes before this. No one said anything. All the sudden, when we talk about economic development in the black community, there's something wrong. ... This issue defines whether or not you stand for economic development on this site or are you going to let this site stand idle? That is unacceptable."
Coalition rejects claim
Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon denied the big-box movement was driven by race.
"We're looking to bring people out of poverty and pay them a living wage. We're not looking at whether they're black, white or Hispanic. We're not trying to be divisive in any community in Chicago. For him to say that is not fair," Gannon said.
Gannon said the coalition that includes Jobs for Justice, ACORN, the Grass Roots Collaborative, Service Employees International Union, and the United Food and Commercial Workers came together to fight the Austin Wal-Mart and stayed together to push for higher retail wages.
"We thought we had more collective strength here in the city than in the outlying areas," Gannon said.
Earlier this week, Daley moved to reassert control over a City Council once viewed as his rubber stamp. He vetoed the big-box ordinance and convinced three of the 35 aldermen who supported it on July 26 -- George Cardenas (12th), Shirley Coleman (16th) and Danny Solis (25th) -- to provide the cross-over votes he needs to sustain his veto.
On Tuesday, Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) agreed to join in upholding the veto. Shiller was the only alderman who did not cast a vote in July. She said she made the decision to oppose a living wage she has long championed, not to save the Target store she hopes to bring to the Wilson Yards project in her ward, but because she thinks the ordinance was too narrow.
"A different ordinance I would have supported and supported all the way through. . . . The majority of smaller boxes who don't pay a living wage -- including restaurants and all of the fast-food places -- none of them are affected by this."
On the eve of Wednesday's vote, Daley got a hero's welcome from business, religious and community leaders crowded under a tent at a muddy, 32-acre site.
Tuesday's event was equal parts religious revival and campaign rally. But it was marred by protesters threatening political retribution.
The protesters were bused in by ACORN and led by the Rev. Robin Hood, who warned that if Daley's veto is sustained, "You will see people in different communities ... coming together to change aldermen and vote a mayor out."
Daley offered to "lend my voice and support" to the fight to raise the minimum wage at the state and national levels.
fspielman@suntimes.com
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