Chicago Aldermen, SEIU Bullying and Wal-Mart

Chicago, the city that works - sometimes, and in spite of itself. Peter Bella writes about the ongoing nonsense and power plays regarding a proposed Wal-Mart store in Chicago's historic Pullman neighborhood on the south side.

Mayor Richard Daley, to his credit, would like to see Wal-Mart (or any big retailer) build in that impoverished neighborhood. It's what some call a "food desert," with few good places to buy food or, for that matter, much else. That goes hand in hand with a lack of places at which to work. Some Chicago alderman and the unions that pull their strings would happily allow people to continue to struggle with no jobs or adequate shopping opportunities rather than allow a Wal-Mart into the hood. They demand, as Bella notes, a "living wage" of $11.03 per hour. (Has anybody ever offered a reasonable definition of "living wage?")  Even minimum wage is better than no wage at all, but the union bosses and corruptocrats in City Hall would apparently prefer no wages for people in Pullman.

"Earleir this week," writes Bella in his column at Chicago Now, "Alderman Solis, the Zoning Committee Chairman demanded Wal-Mart negotiate with SEIU and other unions over wages and benefits. Solis does not know how things work. How can unions negotiate when there are no employees they represent?"

The answer is actually simple. The union bosses don't give a damn about the employees they claim to represent. If they did, they'd push in favor of Wal-Mart, let some unemployed people start earning something, and then - later - negotiate upwards on their behalf. The bosses, however, live pretty high on the union dues that are ripped out of every member's paycheck. The lower the wage, the lower the dues. Even a union boss understands the law of diminished returns.

John Ruberry at Marathon Pundit notes that "Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) has been trying to bring the retail giant--as well as hundreds of jobs--to the historic Pullman neighborhood. Daley wants an up-and-down vote on proposed South Side store" and that currently the unemployment rate in the Chicago metropolitan area is 11.3 percent.

Six years ago, the Chicago City Council actually did approve a Wal-Mart for Chicago's 37th Ward on the city's west side. Alderman Emma Mitts fought hard to get that store for her constituents (it opened in July, 2006).

Of that 2004 vote, Alderman Helen Shiller (46th Ward) said after that "We are dealing with a huge company with a long history of predatory practices," and said that Wal-Mart does not provide its employees with adequate health care. "They count on the city to provide assistance to their workers," she said. "We are creating more loss than gains." (MSNBC...)  Shiller doesn't seem to understand that (a) the city itself has a long history of predatory taxation practices or that (b) many unemployed people are already count on the city for assistance. A pawn of SEIU herself, Shiller either cannot grasp or will not admit that at least some of those who would be employed by Wal-Mart could depend less on the city for assistance if they had an income, however meager. The real predators are the union bosses and the aldermen they support with campaign contributions and political workers.

Wal-Mart contributes to politicians, too, but they need to counter the opposition. Anti-Wal-Mart spinning by its opponents in public office and in the media is often reaches the deep into the depths of idiocy.

An absurd example of this comes from the University of Illinois at Chicago in a January 8, 2010 news release. The headline of the release boggles the mind: "Study: Chicago Walmart Does Not Boost Employment or Retail Sales." This flies in the face of reality. It smacks of the Big Lie so favored by Joseph Goebbels, who said that "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."  What thinking person, however, can actually believe that new retailer with a store over 100,000 square feet and needing many new employees to staff it would not boost employment opportunities?

Yet UIC would have you believe that big lie. That January, 2010 news release claimed that "The opening of a Walmart store in Chicago's Austin neighborhood in 2006 has not increased retail activity or employment opportunities, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Loyola University Chicago."

Really?  It hasn't increased employment opportunities? For anybody? Has that Wal-Mart remained unstaffed with no employees in the several years it has been open? How has the store functioned without employees? Half an ounce of critical thinking shows the absurdity of the UIC "study." 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts disagreed with the UIC study, noted Chicagoist, "saying on WTTW's Chicago Tonight that 'people see what they want to see,' and that she hadn't heard anyone in her community complaining."

The actions and words of the SEIU and their puppets on the City Council indicate that they really don't give a damn about the people they "represent." The propanda work on their behalf, by many in the media, is shameless. The losers who buy into the Wal-Mart hatred are simply pitiful.

RELATED:
Daley wants up-or-down vote on new Wal-Mart Clout Street/Chicago Tribune
Wal-Mart Hate and Deaf Aldermen Chicago News Bench
Video: Ministers rally around Wal-Mart Marathon Pundit
Pastors add pressure for more Walmart stores Chicago Defender
Wal-Mart gets 25,000 applications for Evergreen Park store Chicago Business
Penn and Teller on Wal-Mart Hatred (Video; Language Advisory) YouTube
Wal-Marts in Chicago (Google map a/o April 25, 2010)
Labor Unions: Employment at Wal-Mart Like Slavery BigGovernment.com
Wal-Mart Employment Opportunities HourlyCareers.com
Defeat of Chicago's big-box "living wage" ordinance means more jobs Marathon Pundit

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Wal-Mart Hate and Deaf Aldermen

Is there anybody left in America who has not had to suffer through some liberal's rants about the evils of Wal-Mart? The hatred for Wal-Mart is difficult for most of us to understand. I get the arguments about Wal-Mart's heavy-handedness with their vendors, and I wish they would import less items that are made in China. I also grok the notion that $75 per hour would be a nice living wage for a Wal-Mart greeter. Wal-Mart will always be heavy-handed with vendors (it's all legal), China is cheaper (they don't have piggish union members demanding $75 per hour) and $75 per hour is just too damned much even for a greeter. What I don't get is the holier-than-thee attitude by anti-capitalist hate mongers who prefer to have people on the public dole and, therefore, at the mercy of the government. For those people to be earning their own way and not dependent on government and politicians is ... ah, so, that's it. Wal-Mart haters crave control, not to mention a need for communal reinforcement of their own elitism and a pychotic form of chronic schadenfreude. Penn and Teller put this in perspective brilliantly. See Penn and Teller's report about Wal-Mart hate, Part 1 (Advisory: Language) (Note to Chicagoans: In Part 2 Joe Moore, 49th Ward Ald. and toadie of the SEIU and ACORN, is ripped to shreds within the first minute of the video.) So, we know the prime motivations of most Wal-Mart haters. Some of those haters are Chicago alderman. The Chicago Tribune notes this in a recent editorial: We know organized labor wants to keep Wal-Mart from expanding in Chicago. But what do the aldermen's constituents want? The answer is clear: They want the opportunity to work or shop at Wal-Mart. A new Tribune/WGN poll found that 68 percent of city residents would like to see a new Wal-Mart store in Chicago, and 72 percent say Wal-Mart would be good for the community. The support is even higher with African-Americans, who stand to gain the most economic benefit from the proposed South Side store. The poll found 72 percent of African-Americans want Wal-Mart in the city and 81 percent say it would be good for the community. Surely, even the sub-par intellects on Chicago's City Council must have been aware of this widely held sentiment among their constituents even before the Trib spoon fed it to them. Certainly, since the spoon feeding, all of the aldermen are now aware of it, and we can be confident that they will go along with the wishes of the people they represent, right? The Tribune answered that question. It was including with the spoon feeding: But the aldermen aren't listening to their constituents. The unions provide money and troops at election time. Apparently the aldermen have decided that keeping the labor bosses happy is more critical than following the wishes of their citizens. Ah yes, money. That's another motivation. "I Hate Wal-Mart" t-shirts sell well among the feeble-minded, and union bosses pay - excuse me, contribute to - politicians very generously to help them fight Wal-Mart. For the bosses, it's both power and the prospect of more dues, which would allow them to pad their piggish salaries, extracted every month from members' pockets, even more. That doesn't help union members, it doesn't help the unemployed, it doesn't help the tax revenue stream. Conservative Hats & Shirts Leave a Comment - Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Visit us on Twitter!

Tony Peraica Says Stroger "Unelectable"

Another hard-hitting segment of our exclusive interview with Tony Peraica, Cook County Board Commissioner. He doesn't mince his words as he talks about Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's chances of winning re-election, the hypocrisy of fellow Cook County commissioners and the local Democrat Party, and much more. I interviewed Peraica on May 29, 2009 at his law office on Chicago's South Side. Leave a Comment... See Our Online Store Chicago News Bench RSS Feed We're on Twitter...

Email From Liberal Demonstrates Dementia, Paranoia

Paranoia, fear, loathing, envy. That pretty much sums up the raw hatred that so many Liberals have for Wal-Mart. It’s a company that employs millions, gives away more to charity than some nations have in their entire treasuries, but is nevertheless loathed by millions. I recognize that there are some valid reasons to dislike Wal-Mart, but no valid reasons to hate it. This morning, I received a bizarre email from an uber-Liberal this morning. It contains a childish list of statements about Wal-Mart, presented as fact with no sources of information listed. All of the statements are inaccurate in some way. The statements are apparently taken as fact, at face value, by the uber-Liberal who wrote it, and by the uber-Liberal who forwarded it to me in an email blast. I won't reveal her name, but I will say that she works at a very prestigious university in Evanston, Illinois. Her email, below, seems to be something that she received in an email or found on the web and decided to pass it on. The subject line, "HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?" contains at least two red flags. First, the word "BIG" is surely meant to be taken as "bad" (why do Liberals hate big business, but love big government?). Second, "WAL-MART" is Satan in the opinion of many Liberals. Let's look at the crazy email. I will inject my own remarks along the way. -----Inline Attachment Follows----- This should boggle your mind!! And scare you as well! HOW BIG IS WAL-MART? 1) At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute! BENCH: If your mind is not yet boggled, consider this: There are 1,440 minutes in a full day. 36,000,000 divided by 1,440 equals 25,000. Sure, that’s even more than the author of this idiotic list claimed, but right away we’ve got a signal that the facts are not very accurate. This begs the question: Are you scared yet? If so, why does a magnificent profit scare you? 2) Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year. BENCH: “Will sell” sounds like someone has a crystal ball. Perhaps Wal-Mart sold that much more than Target in the first quarter of a past year, but how could the author know what future sales numbers will be? Furthermore, selling “more” does not necessarily mean that “more” profit will be taken. Target’s pricing is different than Wal-Mart’s. Again, the question: Are you scared yet? If so, why does the fact that some businesses outperform others scare you? Imagine two coffee shops on the same block, and you’re told that one “sold more” cups of coffee than the other. Would you ask why that was so? Would you ask how much each charges for their cups of coffee? These are important considerations, apparently not taken by the author. 3) Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined. BENCH: Yokay, but so what? The author childishly uses “bigger” as a pejorative. The author does not qualify what “bigger” means in this context. Bigger in terms of gross sales, gross profit, net sales, net profit, payroll, amount of taxes paid, amount of real estate owned, square footage of retail outlets? Bigger how? Again, the question: Are you scared yet? If so, why does the fact that a particular business is “bigger” than several of its competitors? Imagine a 7-Eleven that is across the street from a large and popular restaurant. Both sell sandwiches, but the restaurant sells four times as many as the 7-Eleven, occupies a larger space, employs many more people, and so on. It’s “bigger.” Does that make the restaurant bad? 4) Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer. And most can't speak English. BENCH: Actually, Wal-Mart has 2.1 million employees (another indicator of how inaccurate this list is). One of today’s headlines is this, from AP (Dec. 5, 2008): “Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years.” Aren’t Liberals, like other Americans, concerned about rising unemployment? Yes? So how, then, is employing 2.1 million people a bad thing? Does the author of this list have some issue with people who don’t speak English? Wal-Mart currently has 620,000 "International Associates," which is one third of the total 2.1 million employees. (2.1 million minus 620,000 equals 1.48 million, so again the author's "facts" are way off.) Apparently so, but don’t Liberals claim to be more compassionate about non-English speakers? The author doesn’t indicate, however, where those employees are located. Could “most” of the Wal-Mart employees be manufacturing merchandise for Wal-Mart overseas, in non-English speaking countries? I don’t know, but if the author knows he/she is withholding the information. 5) Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World. BENCH: Yes, at the moment. But before Wal-Mart got there, somebody else was “the largest company in the history of the World,” and somebody else before, and so on. Sooner or later, some other company will become “the largest company in the history of the World.” In fact, it may happen soon. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 3, 2007 that “Wal-Mart’s influence over the retail universe is slipping. In fact, the industry’s titan is scrambling to keep up with swifter rivals that are redefining the business all around it.” 6) Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years. BENCH: I must be missing something here. Is selling a lot of food a bad thing? As for saying that Wal-Mart “did this in only 15 years,” we have another red flag. According to Wal-Mart, the company began in 1962, when founder Sam Walton opened the company’s first discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. Correct me if I’m wrong, but 15 years after 1962 would be 1977. Uhm, that was nearly 32 years ago. Where did the author come up with the 15 year info? 7) During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie). BENCH: What period is that? The author gives no dates. The author implies that Wal-Mart drove Winn-Dixie into bankruptcy, but in fact that is not true. Karen Brune Mathis of the The Times-Union wrote an excellent article on October 13, 2007 about the Winn-Dixie bankruptcy. Mathis wrote that “Winn-Dixie spent 21 months in bankruptcy reorganization, filing in February 2005 and emerging in November 2006.” She also noted that “long dominant Winn-Dixie watched service-oriented Publix Super Markets displace it as the top grocer in the area in 2000. In 2006, price-focused Wal-Mart took second place, pushing Winn-Dixie to No. 3.” Does that sound like Wal-Mart suddenly jumped up and cut the head off of Winn-Dixie? Mathis quotes Holly Felder Etlin , one of the turnaround advisers who helped Winn-Dixie reorganize and regroup as saying the main causes of Winn-Dixie’s demise were “the company's focus on cutting costs while not keeping the stores up to date, not focusing enough on new products and facing a bloated cost structure.” (I doubt that Wal-Mart had anything to do with Winn-Dixie’s own mismanagement.) 8) Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world. BENCH: This is essentially a repeat of #6 above. 9) Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago. BENCH: Another inaccuracy: “Today, 7,390 Wal-Mart stores and Sam’s Club locations in 14 markets employ more than 2 million associates, serving more than 200 million customers per year.” (Source) 10) This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.) BENCH: So what? 7.2 billion divided by 200 million equals 36. That means that each of those 200 million customers had an average of 36 “purchasing experiences” per year. That’s three visits per month. I hit my local 7-Eleven three times a day, often enough. This figure means nothing unless you’re unable to look at big numbers, break them down, and realize that there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. 11) 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. BENCH: So what? 90% of all Chicagoans live within 15 miles of City Hall. Does that make City Hall bad? Of course not. Temptation, greed and callous disregard make City Hall bad. 12) Let Wal-Mart bail out Wall Street. BENCH: Why? Did Wal-Mart cause the meltdown of Wall Street? What did Wal-Mart have to do with the gross mismanagement and corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Wal-Mart may be doing well, but I hardly think they have over $700 billion to give away. Speaking of giving money away, Wal-Mart gives away more money to charitable causes than most companies do. For example, “Wal-Mart’s support is helping the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. break ground for the national memorial dedicated to the civil rights leader by providing a $12.5 million letter of credit from the Wal-Mart Foundation.” That’s just a tiny fraction of their charitable giving. So, let’s summarize the Wal-Mart list, point by point: 1) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 2) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 3) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 4) Millions of Americans have jobs, thanks to Wal-Mart. 5) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart, so much so that it’s now the largest company in the world. 6) Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 7) Some companies are not as well as Wal-Mart. 8) See #6. 9) Wal-Mart has been expanding rapidly because Americans love to shop at Wal-Mart. 10) The average Wal-Mart shopper shops at a Wal-Mart three times per month. 11) Wal-Mart is conveniently located within a short drive of 90% of all Americans. 12) Liberals think Wal-Mart somehow caused the current bad economic climate. My favorite part of the entire email is the last item. Note that today is December 5, 2008. Vice President Dick Cheney will leave office in just a few weeks, on January 20. Yet, at the bottom of the uber-Liberal’s email is this link, urging the impeachment of Cheney. Vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll http://www.usalone.com/blogvoices.php?Cheney%20Impeachment%3F (WARNING! Follow that link at your own risk! I did, it seems suspicious. Don’t follow the link unless you are confident that you have a good firewall and a very good anti-spyware and anti-virus program running!) RELATED: http://money.howstuffworks.com/wal-mart.htm Why I Love Wal-Mart and You Should Too - Associated Content YouTube - P&T Bullshit Wal-Mart Hatred Part 1 American Thinker Blog: Wal-Mart hatred on display in LA Times The Wal-Mart hatred bandwagon is a load of crap... (cuss words!) From the Wal-Mart corporate site: Wal-Mart's charitble giving Wal-Mart's disaster relief Wal-Mart's international operations Wal-Mart's employment and diversity

Mrs. Obama Gives It Up

From The Swamp (Chicago Tribune), Christi Parsons writes that wealthy U.S. left-wing Senator Barack Obama's wealthy wife has - finally - quit her job at a major Wal-Mart supplier. Apparently, demands by Andy Martin, made last week, have apparently had an impact. Martin is a Chicago-based Internet journalist, broadcaster and media critic who held a press conference on Tuesday, May 15th. He demanded that Michelle Obama resign her position on the Board of Treehouse Foods. Andy Martin asked Michelle Obama to step down from Wal-Mart supplier Treehouse. Martin says Mrs. Obama should end her "conflict of interest." He said it is hypocritical for Sen. Obama to attack Wal-Mart while his wife sits on the board of one of Wal-Mart's biggest suppliers. Michelle Obama resigned her position as a director of Treehouse Foods today, ending the relationship with the Wal-Mart supplier that had threatened to become a problem for her husband, Barack Obama, in his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. Treehouse supplies pickles and other specialty foods to Wal-Mart, a frequent target of union leaders who say the company treats its workers unfairly. Michelle Obama cited increased demands on her time for resigning the position, which she had held since the summer of 2005. FULL STORY at the Chicago Tribune... RELATED: Obama called hypocrite for wife's Wal-Mart link Obamas report earning $991000 last year Obama's 2006 income drops Chicago Tribune Andy Martin

West Side Wal-Mart (with video)

Hat tip to friend John Ruberry at Marathon Pundit for this. John writes, "Many Chicago alderman, led by anti-Wal-Mart zealot Joe Moore, fight to keep the retail king out of Chicago. As is the case with leftists, Moore is more interested in broadly fighting for "the people" rather that giving folks what they want: jobs and a way to save money." FULL POST... I would add that hypocrites like Joe Moore always use the term "the people" for self-serving ends. It is "the people" who suffer when they have no jobs, or when goods and services are not available at reasonable prices. Do I have issues with Wal-Mart? Sure, I do. But to deny people goods, services and jobs simply to make a political point is not cool. The video shows employees in their own words praising Wal-Mart. Watch the video here.

Joe Moore Tried To Prevent 440 New Jobs

If Alderman Joe Moore had gotten his way with the "Big Box" ordinance, Chicago would now have about $2 million less in tax revenue, and about 440 people might be without jobs. Joe Moore is more harmful than helpful when it comes to jobs creation. Here's a great example today, from NBC5 Chicago: CHICAGO -- Chicago's first Wal-Mart store has shown impressive numbers in the Austin neighborhood in its first six months with nearly $2 million in new tax revenue and more than 440 jobs, according to a release from 37th Ward Ald. Emma Mitts Wednesday. In a press conference Wednesday morning at City Hall, Mitts announced that the store has generated more than $500,000 alone in new sales tax to the City of Chicago alone, the release said. The store’s presence has generated a total of more than $2 million in tax revenue for the city, county, state and the RTA. The store, at 4650 West North Ave., employs 443 new associates with more than half of the employees residents of Mitts’ West Side ward, the release said. The store's staff is 77 percent African American, and 17 percent are Hispanic. THE FULL STORY...

Joe Moore Creamed by Penn & Teller

PENN AND TELLER MAKE JOE MOORE LOOK LIKE A BIG FAT FOOL

WARNING: This video features bare-breasted women near the end of the video

Click to view at your own discretion

Wal-Mart champions diversity

Wal-Mart wants its main suppliers to open up more opportunities to women and ethnic minorities. Wal-Mart's push could be the first time an American corporation used its influence to promote greater racial and sexual equality. And you thought Wal-Mart was evil. More from FT.com...

Big Box and Joe Moore's Socialist Agenda

The next time you hear Alderman Joe Moore talk about a "living wage" or his puffery about creating jobs in Rogers Park, ask him what the hell he's talking about. In the summer of 2006, Comrade Alderman Joe Moore got his "living wage" ordinance passed in the City Council. 

Comrade Joe Moore

Some cheered that "progressive" law. Most of us, however, understood that this was (a) bad for local employment opportunities, (b) not the right way to achieve a better standard of living, (c) dangerous because it would scare other "big box" businesses (stores with 100,000 sq. feet or more) away from Chicago, and (d) it would only be a matter of time before the "progressives" behind the ordinance pushed for "medium box" and eventually any box they could get their "progressive" hands on. 

Sure enough, points out Marathon Pundit, it wasn't long before "Lowe's and Target announced cancelling new store projects in Chicago. But there is common sense in Chicago--Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed the bill." Yesterday, Home Depot (a "big box") said it was hiring thousands of people nationwide, including 2,000 right here in Chicago. 

Thank God that Mayor Daley vetoed Alderman Joe Moore's idiotic and counter-productive ordinance, and that enough members of the City Council came around to common sense. Had they not, the hundreds of people that Wal-Mart has since put to work, plus the 2,000 Chicagoans that will find employment at Home Depot soon, would be - pardon my French - shit out of luck. This is not to say there are not problems with Wal-Mart and some other "big box" stores. 

I, too, have issues with them, not the least of which is there piggish buying of Chinese-made goods, goods that often have equivalents made in the U.S. or in nations friendlier to us than is China. But one of the good things they do is employ Americans right in our own backyard. False progressives like Joe Moore, however, would rather deny people an opportunity to work at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or Target than have them work for the "non-living" wage of $9.00 per hour. 

Stop; let's not quibble about the exact wage. The point here is that anything over minimum wage is a hell of a lot better than nothing, and nothing is what too many people in some of our neighborhoods have. Joe Moore would keep it that way simply to score political points and have champagne toasts made to him by fellow "progressives." 

As I pointed out yesterday, this is good news for 2,000 Chicagoans. But Joe Moore must hate it. 

Again, Marathon Pundit: 

"One of the major supporters of [Alderman] Moore's bill was the Service Employees International Union. Had Moore, SEIU, and other short-sighted ones gotten their way, those Home Depot jobs wouldn't be coming to Chicago." 

Yes, but will that stop Joe Moore? No, he and his minion Alex Armour have an obsessive hatred of Wal-Mart and other "big box" stores, and their blind hatred causes them to drive against these business entities in spite of the fact that their actions have the potenial to destroy lives by denying people needed jobs. These guys are not "progressives." Progressives put people first, not selfish political ambition. Joe Moore and the Stalinists in his camp do not care about people; politics and tally marks are more important. Keep an eye on Moore; there will be future battles in this fight. 

Read Marathon Pundit's excellent reporting on yesterday's Home Depot announcement, and related items by clicking here.