Jobs or Votes?
The votes might be long gone, so the only question is how much more money can Shortshanks make for his Outfit buddies and Federal handlers?
The City Council's failure to resolve the stalemate that has prevented Wal-Mart from building as many as five Chicago Supercenters has put Mayor Daley in a political box he has desperately tried to avoid.
He can either grant administrative approval for a Chatham Wal-Mart and risk alienating union leaders who opposed his 2007 re-election and whose support he needs to win a seventh term and solve financial crises at City Hall and McCormick Place.
Or he can allow the impasse to drag on and risk a $30 million lawsuit against the city and a continuing exodus of jobs, tax revenue and shopping choices to the suburbs.
Expect Daley to make the wrong decision, then claim he knew nothing about who was in charge, who made the decisions and where the money went. Then expect the media to give him a pass. Again.
Labels: city politics
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
15 Comments:
F**K Wal-Mart, it has been sucking the jobs out of this country for years. Interesting article:
"Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas."
From (last years) the FOP Current Updates;
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2009
WE HAVE SURPASSED OUR GOAL 12/15/09
AS OF WEDNESDAY, 30 DECEMBER 2009, WE HAVE 195 MEMBERS THAT HAVE APPLIED FOR RETIREMENT.
Phase 2 of the premium free healthcare benefit at retirement required that at least 130 members apply for retirement in order for any member to enjoy this benefit upon retirement between April 1 and December 31, 2010.
Today, the Lodge was notified that the 130 application threshold had been surpassed. Any member who submits a retirement PAR by December 31, 2009, with a retirement date of April 1 through December 31, 2010, will now be able to take advantage of this benefit. The member must have reached his 55th birthday by the requested date of retirement.
Recap!
195 Police Officers had their retirement papers in as of 30 Dec 2009 to get the Free Healthcare at age 55.
And the earliest they can leave is 1 April 2010, so thats 195 leaving in the lasts 9 months of 2010 plus whoever else decides to leave, i.e., those that reach age 60 and those that are forced to retire before their 63rd birthday, and that figure does not include the Sgt's (who declined to sign the age 55 agreement).
A Very Very Conservative estimate will be over 300 members leaving in 2010. (more like 400 total)
(More Sgt's will retire after the contract is resolved and they get the age 55 healthcare benefit).
Job response times will take longer and longer. The thin Blue Line will be stretched to the Max!
And Officer Safety will be at Risk!
Drive slow, stay safe, and come home each day in one piece, Amen!
Fuck Walmart! All they sell is Commie Chinese shit.
This is one of the primary reasons the USA is finished.
Bring back Mom & Pop America, bring back American industry and commerce.
The USA is almost a nation without industry, soon to be almost a nation if this keeps up.
daley will find a way to lujack the whole thing on retiring and indicted aldermen and on those who have opposed him in the past. Hell, he can probably blame it all on Sorich, Al Sanchez, the suspended head of fleet, Picardi, Paul Volpe, Bill Abolt and any number of readily available fall guys past and present.
Wait, I've got it! daley can blame it on the media! Yup, the dirty rotten media, yeah, that's the ticket, it is all the fault of the media for not supporting his Olympic bid. Now leave him alone!
Walmart should tell this big tax ungratefull city to Shove IT! Screw them and take your business elsewhere. The corrupt shitcago leaders have no idea how simple economics works. Besides it would not be worth it with all the theft, security, and fake workers comp costs anyway.
I can't believe Wal-Mart would even consider to do business with the scum that run this city. Below is an email I sent to Wal-Mart brass. I suggest others that own stock with them do the same.
Love Wal-Mart! Please forward to top managers!!!!!!I'm a long time resident and business owner in Chicago. I am glad to see Wal-Mart stick to their core business foundations and not fall to the corrupt politics of Chicago politicians and strong arming of the fake reverends. I believe it would not be in Wal-Marts best interest to do any business in Chicago because of the extreme difficulty to producce a consistant revenue. The extreme high costs of security, theft, and fraudulent worker comps case will be astronomical. The area that Wal-Mart is considering is overrun with crime and has been use to getting something for nothing for decades. It is intrenched in their minds that they should take from the successfull and this will have a huge impact on revenue. Besides, can you really trust a Chicago politician? From an invester who knows.
What would you do SCC? As a presently employed worker of Costco, making more than the living wage, via Chicago standards, or for that matter national standards, the structures are union built, seek no "tif" funds, would you like not to see more Costco's than Walmart's?
Costco is looking to build in the "IMD" area, look at the restrictions that the aldermandic people want to instill. Because of where a corporation wants to build you need to have so many employees from their ward? Set asides.
What about getting the best people that you can employ? Thus, make a "going concern" of the business in your area, a truly great endeavor?
Does this not behoove the taxpayer?
The general public? The people of the city?
tjmttugrn@hotmail.com
AND DONT FORGET TO EXPECT MORE OF YOUR HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS TO BE STOLEN.
The City of Chicago is going to subsidize a Walmart?
You have to be kidding me, this giant multi-billion dollar corporation can't build its own store?
A ghetto walmart will not last...there will be too much pilfering and theft. Even "security" will have it's problems. It's the nature of the beast. Walmart will eventually close and take it as a loss.
The only people who have stores in the poor areas are the arabs and koreans. The blacks don't like it, but they buy from them because even the blacks don't want to open stores in their own neighborhoods.
Bring back Mom & Pop America, bring back American industry and commerce.
The USA is almost a nation without industry, soon to be almost a nation if this keeps up.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
As much as I would like to see the Mom and Pop's come back, it is not going to happen. Restrictive loan rules, city taxes, head taxes, and the money that small businesses need to pay for health insurance, all of these things keep small businesses from opening, let alone succeeding. The fact that things are made in China or Korea or wherever is another factor. Small businesses cannot compete with the buying power of the big box corporations. Part of this is a function of the union movement. I am, like all coppers a union member (well it's supposed to be a union, but that's another rant). Before the job, I was a teamster, driving trucks. The places I picked up and delivered to had union workers on the dock or in the stores. No more. Those jobs are gone because manufacturing concerns have moved overseas, where the labor and other costs are less. Take a ride west on Lake Street or over east where the mills used to be. All businesses, big and small-gone. Not just the outfits who employed thousands, but businesses who employed 50-100 people, people who aid taxes, raised families and saved for their retirement. The jobs gone, the revenue gone, the people gone. Empty factories, empty stores, empty houses. We are a service economy, "you want fries with that"? And we will remain a service economy. It is sad but it is a fact.
It is too late to come back.
If you want Wal-Mart, be my guest. They sold out America a long time ago all in the name of corporate profits. They hire Union when it eases problems like in Chicago but at their core they could care less about the USA. I have worked for them in an oversight role (non-union contractor screwed up and as a result lost about 4 mil in merchandice to smoke damage) but they are no different from Target or Meijer or any of the other big box stores who buy the majority of their merchandice from China. We have lost our dominance to slave labor and cheap prices and we had better get used to a reduced standard of living unless we want to fight against that. I am a Local 134 IBEW member but I am also a NRA member and an ISRA member so don't pin me with a f'n liberal label because I believe that you earn what you work for. Bless all the Police and Firemen and all the Tradesmen who have built this city.
Bring back Mom & Pop America, bring back American industry and commerce.
The USA is almost a nation without industry, soon to be almost a nation if this keeps up.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
As much as I would like to see the Mom and Pop's come back, it is not going to happen. Restrictive loan rules, city taxes, head taxes, and the money that small businesses need to pay for health insurance, all of these things keep small businesses from opening, let alone succeeding. The fact that things are made in China or Korea or wherever is another factor. Small businesses cannot compete with the buying power of the big box corporations. Part of this is a function of the union movement. I am, like all coppers a union member (well it's supposed to be a union, but that's another rant). Before the job, I was a teamster, driving trucks. The places I picked up and delivered to had union workers on the dock or in the stores. No more. Those jobs are gone because manufacturing concerns have moved overseas, where the labor and other costs are less. Take a ride west on Lake Street or over east where the mills used to be. All businesses, big and small-gone. Not just the outfits who employed thousands, but businesses who employed 50-100 people, people who aid taxes, raised families and saved for their retirement. The jobs gone, the revenue gone, the people gone. Empty factories, empty stores, empty houses. We are a service economy, "you want fries with that"? And we will remain a service economy. It is sad but it is a fact.
It is too late to come back.
1/18/2010 05:31:00 PM
I won't dispute your analysis and find it sad. If the industry is gone, which it is, we as a nation are finished.
They now classify making hamburgers at McDonald's as manufacturing jobs, WTF?
Without industry there will be no job growth, only losses. The spiral will continue downward. Construction is crushed and the American automotive industry is gasping.
When we exited the Great Depression we had only to turn the factories and mills back on. What do you turn on now?
Sad day, WAKEUP PEOPLE!
Game Over
Off-topic:
Good news! Not all of Chicago's convention business is leaving town!
The Deployment Operations Center sent out a fax today that says the east coast leadership of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club will be flying into Midway (think landing fees) 22-23 January for a meeting to be held in nearby Harvey, Illinois!
All hope is not lost!
There's no telling how much money these guys will spend on trinkets and souvenirs that have "Chicago" printed on them, for their old ladies!
They seem to like leather jackets (Kales are you listening?) and black t-shirts, too!
They've got to eat, so no doubt the local restaurants will be making some coin off of the bros, too.
Maybe the Daley Crime Family can court these guys for future convention business, too.
I.m no fan of Wal-Mart or their bussiness practices, but for the city and unions to impose labor rules on one store that won't apply to any other store in their chain is stupid. Chatam and the city need Wal-Mart more than Wal-Mart needs them. They aren't missing any revenue. The same customers from the south side drive a few miles west to Evergreen Park and spend their money giving that suburb a tax revenue windfall. More tax revenue that could be kept in the city. For those who say putting a Wal-Mart in a black neighborhood isn't profitable, check the west side. It's been a win-win situation for the neighborhood and Wal-Mart. Suburbs like Evergreen Park hopes the city and the unions keep on fighting while they collect all that city money in sales tax.
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