CHASING WAL-MART PART 2, PART 2: Here's an article from the Sun-Times on Wednesday that lays out the sides in the Chicago City Council fight pretty clearly.

The Chicago Federation of Labor has made three demands of the retailing behemoth it calls "Public Enemy No. 1": that Wal-Mart agree not to sell groceries at any of its Chicago stores to avoid driving down the wages of its supermarket competitors, that the company remain neutral in any union-organizing campaign and that it pay its Chicago employees a "living wage."

None of those promises are included in the letter, and Wal-Mart made no apologies for the omission.

Asked why Wal-Mart won't pay the living wage of around $9.10 an hour when its Chicago area associates already average $10.77 an hour, regional manager for community affairs John Bisio said, "Wal-Mart is not a city contractor. Nobody that I know in retailing is promising to participate in something that doesn't apply to them."

Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon charged that 60 percent of Wal-Mart's employees are part-timers earning only $7.55 an hour.

"If this marketplace means so much to Wal-Mart, what's the problem putting it in writing for all the world to see?"

While initial plans call for the Wal-Mart stores in the Chatham and Austin neighborhoods to sell general merchandise only, Bisio said a super-center that sells groceries cannot be ruled out.

And another take from the Tribune, via the Joe Hill Dispatch (the Tribune site requires registration):

We have leverage here," said James Thindwa, executive director of Chicago Jobs With Justice. "They cannot maintain their level of profitability without going into urban centers like Chicago. This city has an opportunity to set a precedent, to really shift the terms of debate on Wal-Mart."

For some, that has already happened. Community leaders in the West Side's Austin neighborhood who support Wal-Mart's arrival to a commercial landscape dotted with dollar stores, fast-food restaurants and corner grocery markets have garnered a string of promises from the company, some of them unprecedented, Bisio said.

For example, area churches and other groups would have a say about which banks handle daily deposits for the store and which contractors would help build the store at Kilpatrick and Grand Avenues, Bisio said. The company has also said at least 75 percent of the 300 jobs created at the store will go to people from the community, including the possibility of hiring ex-convicts; it will pay "competitive wages" that start at $7 an hour; and it will consult local leaders on where corporate donations would be most useful.

Wal-Mart executives are in similar discussions with groups in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, Bisio said.

"We've weighed the pros and cons of having a Wal-Mart in this community and the pros far outweigh the cons," said Rev. Joseph Kyles, chairman of the 37th Ward Pastors Alliance, a group of 24 area churches on the West Side. He characterized the various commitments as opportunities to address such long-standing local concerns as bank redlining, affordable housing and deteriorating public schools.

More here and here.