Walmart Gets Its Chicago Store, and Immediately Reneges on Its Wage Deal
For six years, Chicago unions have demanded that if Walmart (WMT) came to town, the company would have to pay workers more. Then, this week, the union finally extracted a concession from the retail giant: After screaming for $11 an hour including benefits, the United Food and Commercial Workers accepted Walmart's offer of just $.50 an hour above minimum wage for starting pay, with another $.50 to $.60 in raises within the first year. Based on this deal, Chicago aldermen voted yesterday to rezone one suburban lot for a new Walmart store.
And right after the vote, Walmart said started denying there was a deal. Which is not the way to get off on the right foot with community stakeholders you're hoping will pave the way for you to build dozens more stores in their town.
Directly after the zoning vote, Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo told Bloomberg Businessweek, "There are no deals. All raises are based on performance."
The celebratory mood unraveled quickly, with Chicago Federation of Labor secretary-treasurer Jorge Ramirez firing back that Walmart's message was "We want to enter the urban marketplace with rural wages."
Getting Walmart to pay a measly $.50 an hour more might not seem like much, but it's the first time the company has been willing to change its pay policy for a new market. But without the raise guarantee, the concession starts to look, well, even more measly. The deal was a major coup for Chicago's United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which called it "a starting point for future discussions." For about five minutes. Based on Walmart's comments, union organizers will probably want to revisit the starting point immediately.
Walmart might have wanted to wait before it backpedaled on raises -- another Chicago store proposal is due to be voted on next week. Now, they've pissed off a union that came into the negotiation process with a huge chip on its shoulder already, based on Walmart's labor history. The union planned to watch Walmart like a hawk on labor practices before Walmart tried to fudge its agreement. Just imagine what it'll be like for the company in Chi-town now.
"The retailer has a long track record of disingenuous behavior toward its workers and the communities in which it operates," the UFCW wrote in its release celebrating the deal, warning that the union planned to watch closely to make sure Walmart kept its promises. That might have seemed like brash union rudeness before, but now it seems prescient.
Photo via Flickr user Elizabeth Washburn Related: