Wal-Mart and unions race for Olympic gold

Chicago's City Council has sent the Wal-Mart request for a second big box store - this one selling groceries - to Alderman Ed Burke's Finance Committee, where it will languish until after the October 2, 2009 International Olympic Committee votes on the location for the 2016 games. Aldermen opposing construction of a new Wal-Mart store at 83d and Stewart on Chicago's south side are courting the support of labor unions opposed to expansion of a large and well heeled non-union business in the city. Aldermen favoring construction of the second Wal-Mart store are courting the support of hordes of unemployed voters in the neighborhood of the construction site, looking for work on construction of the store building or as "associates" working in the store once it is completed.

What does any of this have to do with the Olympics? Well, except for the expansion of O'Hare Airport, there isn't going to be a lot of work for the construction trades in Chicago during the next several years. O'Hare expansion is being delayed by the need to move a cemetery to make room for the south runway, and notices to the families who have loved ones buried there are just going out this week, advising of the details for moving their relatives to a different final resting place. But if the IOC gives the green light for the 2016 games here, billions of dollars of new construction will rapidly put tradespeople back to work, at least for the next six years while Chicago gets all the proposed new sports venues, and athlete housing, ready.

Mayor Daley has already incurred the ire of organized labor in the city by insisting on unpaid furloughs for city workers as one big part of his budget balancing act. Permitting approval for construction of a second Wal-Mart now would be too much for union leaders to bear - unless they get the Olympic Games and the multi-billion dollar construction payrolls which will come with IOC's selection of Chicago over Madrid, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. If Chicago wins the games, look for quick and quiet approval of a second Wal-Mart store by City Council behind the smokescreen of Olympic hoopla which could well last for weeks if not months as local papers, magazines and TV stations explore all the various good things coming from Olympic construction cash. Getting timely building permits issued for so many projects all at once might just put an end to unpaid furloughs for the city's building department employees, as well.

Labor peace in Chicago, and the ability of the city's contractors and unions to successfully negotiate project labor agreements for major construction in town, have been big selling points by the organizers of the city's Olympic bid. Putting off any heated dispute over Wal-Mart's non-union status until after the IOC announces its final decision in a couple months is a move fully worthy of Daley's political genius. Wal-Mart has already obtained its lender's approval to postpone closing on the ownership of the store site at 83d and Stewart until May, 2010, so there will be plenty of time for hizonner and his allies to duke it out with the unions over a second Wal-Mart store should Chicago lose out to one of the other cities vying for the 2016 games. Remember, the first Wal-Mart store in Chicago was not launched until after Daley pulled out his veto pen and struck down the "big box" ordinance which would have forced Wal-Mart to pay union scale even if its workers did not succeed in organizing. Why start a fight now, when everyone's mad and hurting, if the salve of a few billion dollars for Olympic construction projects could heal the hurt and soften the scars to smooth the way for a happy groundbreaking at 83d and Stewart with union leaders dipping their golden spades into the freshly graded earth along side Mayor Daley?