What a bunch of morons
Jobs On Aisle Three
Posted 06:54 PM ET
Stimulus: A group of ministers wants a big-box retailer to create jobs in a desolate area of President Obama's hometown. In a largely jobless recovery, why are the labor unions and political bosses fighting the clergy?
Unemployment in the Chicago area was 11.3% in February. Joblessness on Chicago's South Side was and is probably much higher, according to Omar McRoberts, a University of Chicago sociology professor who studies urban poverty.
So you'd think that if there was a chance to bring hundreds of jobs to an area that badly needs them, there would be little resistance. And you'd think that job creation not far from the president's old stomping grounds would be a high priority for both the city and the administration.
It is a high priority for the Rev. Larry Roberts Sr., a former unionized beverage truck driver who's leading a group of black ministers who favor building two Wal-Mart stores in the area. They've waged a six-year battle against a nanny state that seems more interested in power than prosperity.
At one location, with a Wal-Mart Supercenter as its anchor, Roberts hopes to see the site of an abandoned steel plant transformed into a 230-acre retail development that would include about 800 new homes, a hotel and a new community recreation center. The store alone would employ 400 workers.
There are few mom-and-pop stores in this blighted area. Yet for the past six years, Wal-Mart and its allies have fought opponents who charge that such "big box" stores exploit workers, depress wages and drive out community businesses. They want to force Wal-Mart to agree to pay what liberal activists call a "living wage," forgetting that in such depressed areas zero is not a living wage.
The average wage for nonmanagers at Chicago's single existing Wal-Mart is $11.30 an hour. When that store opened, nearly 16,000 people — 98% of them from the neighborhood — applied for its 450 jobs.
On the eve of a scheduled Thursday Planning Commission vote, Chicago Alderman Freddrenna Lyle introduced a living-wage ordinance that would require stores that employ more than 50 workers and benefit directly or indirectly from city subsidies to pay its workers what the city mandates. Even if the commission approves, the project must still run the gantlet of the City Council zoning committee and the full council.
"The idea that (these ministers) are going to go after the alderman ... that's almost laughable," says Delmarie Cobb, a veteran political consultant and spokeswoman for the ironically named Good Jobs Chicago, a coalition of unions and activists opposed to the new Wal-Marts. "I can tell you that in 20 years, I haven't seen these ministers get anyone elected."
It is ironic that Wal-Mart critics, who complain that its employees live paycheck to paycheck, forget that many of its customers also live paycheck to paycheck, and seek quality merchandise at decent prices. How can they oppose "low" wages for Wal-Mart employees while in effect supporting higher prices for Wal-Mart customers?
It's also ironic that as the administration has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars on a failed stimulus program, Wal-Mart's effort to do a little stimulus of its own is being rebuffed not far from where President Obama cut his political teeth.
Wal-Mart gives people what they want at a price they can afford. It believes a fair wage is one agreed upon between employee and employer. It is efficient, innovative, successful and nonunion — and is opposed for all these reasons. It's the poster child for roll-up-your-sleeves capitalism. Founded 50 years ago as a single five-and-dime store in a small Arkansas town, its success story mirrors America's. Blocking this project could mirror America's decline. |
