In 2004, when Wal-Mart proposed opening stores in Chicago, the City Council encountered a new–and to many of its members, an unsettling–phenomenon: debate. Some aldermen argued that the big-box retailer offered wages that were too low. Others argued that it brought jobs and shopping options to neighborhoods desperately in need of both. Everyone claimed to be fighting for the rights of the poor.
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Dave Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, argued against any minimum-wage requirement. Ray Suarez, alderman of the 31st Ward, asked him, “Don’t you believe that these people deserve a fair wage?”
“A fair wage and safe working conditions,” Vite said.
Smith was taken aback. “OK. Well then, we’ve been through some of the same things,” he said. “Let’s work to make things better for people.”
“I’m not going to argue economics with folks because, frankly, they’re probably better at it than me,” said Billy Ocasio, alderman of the 26th Ward. “But I also don’t want to argue with people who’ve never supported a wage increase before.” He said his wife recently made him watch a television program about households on tight budgets, and that had set him thinking. “If Oprah Winfrey can do a show about this,” he declared, “we can do something.”
A few seats away Alderman Isaac Carothers of the 29th Ward sat up straight and grabbed his microphone. “Mr. Chairman, do I hear Alderman Moore suggesting that we amend the ordinance?”
Moore smiled, and Burke called the next witness, another Austin activist who argued against the ordinance because it would hurt the poor.
