Chicago's unemployment rate is 11.3 percent. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, wants more stores in the city--but union leaders are pressuring the Chicago City Council from allowing more in. Much of the city is a "food desert," areas with out a supermarket offering reasonably priced groceries. Wal-Mart wants to change that. And so does Alderman Anthony Beale (9th); he want a store in his ward, which he declares is a food desert. Ironically it is near where Barack Obama worked as a community organizer.
And there is some community organizing going on. A group of 150 African American ministers is lobbying for more Wal-Marts in Chicago. On the other side, labor unions, who aren't very good at creating jobs--in fact, I think they do the opposite, are pledging to oust any alderman who supports Wal-Mart.
And the opponents of Wal-Mart are cranking up the demagoguery, including longtime Democratic strategist Delmarie Cobb, who launched this missile in the Chicago Tribune:
The notion that black people should be happy to get any job, I think, is an insult to the black community, said Delmarie Cobb, a veteran political activist and spokeswoman for Good Jobs Chicago. "As I said to Anthony Beale, slavery was a job."Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who works at Wal-Mart, and I discussed Cobb's comments with them--my friend is white, her co-worker is Asian. Not only did they roll their eyes when I brought up the "slavery" reference, but they pointed out that their former boss is African-American; she was promoted last week and is now working at the sole Chicago Wal-Mart.
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My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy
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1 comment:
Union's have a tendency to be more corrupt and become dictatorship like. Nothing in Florida's Walmarts are Slavery orientated matter of fact it is mostly Hispanic, Blacks and Asians that run the company. The problems stem from primarily the Home Office. They do national advertising then do not stock the items? They let a computer do the scheduling of employees which turns full time loyal employees into part timer's causing vast turnover. These are stupidity run a muck by CEO's that never worked in the real world. Not some conspiracy slavery thing. I predict, if CEO's do not wake up soon, Walmart will, within the next 10 years become China owned and operated. Right now Walmart is an oasis for unskilled works that can't work anywhere else.
They train them and give them skills that would not be available here in the US any longer. Unions would only hasten the sell out to the Chinese and put thousands out of work.
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