Chicago ministers group to play hardball on Wal-Mart

Chicago ministers group to play hardball on Wal-Mart
 

By Monée Fields-White
March 01, 2010

If, as appears likely, more Wal-Marts don’t get the green light this year, the ministers say they’ll mount a campaign against aldermen who oppose the big retailer’s expansion. Taking a page from union groups that have held Wal-Mart back, the ministers say they will support candidates in favor of the store with political advertising and urge their congregants to vote against dissenters.

From left to right, the Revs. Thomas Barclay, Larry Roberts, Herbert Lee and Alan Ragland are part of a more than 200-member coalition looking to bring more Wal-Marts to Chicago. Photo: Stephen J. Serio

“The pressure must be applied, starting with the mayor,” says the Rev. Larry Roberts of Trinity All Nations Ministries on the South Side. “The procrastination is just bringing more damage to the city and the communities.”Rev. Roberts is leading the coalition, which also includes prominent clergymen the Rev. Roosevelt Watkins of Bethlehem Star M.B. Church; the Rev. Simon Gordon of Triedstone Full Gospel Baptist Church; the Rev. Alan Ragland of Third Baptist Church of Chicago; the Rev. D. Darrell Griffin of Oakdale Covenant Church; the Rev. Herbert Lee of New Progressive Missionary Baptist Church; the Rev. Thomas Barclay of Progressive Beulah Pentecostal Church, and the Rev. Walter Turner of New Spiritual Light Missionary Baptist Church.

The pastors are betting that community sentiment in favor of Wal-Mart has grown immensely as store closings and job losses have piled up, leaving Wal-Mart the only viable hope in many poor neighborhoods.

Retail insiders say the ministers could lend moral authority to the pro-expansion movement, countering labor’s argument that Wal-Mart pays low wages and otherwise mistreats its employees. Of course, the prospect of mobilizing their congregations is the group’s most powerful weapon.

“What aldermen respond to is votes, and what churches have is lots of congregants and lots of votes,” says Neil Stern, a partner at Chicago retail consultancy McMillan Doolittle LLP.

Some of the ministers originally opposed Wal-Mart’s encroachment but changed positions in the past year as the recession took its toll. “The landscape of these communities isn’t the same,” says Rev. Ragland, who four years ago spoke against Wal-Mart. “We don’t have the luxury of saying no to Wal-Mart now.”

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has only one store in the city, in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.Since 2004, Alderman Howard Brookins (21st) has sought to put another in his ward at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue. The project has been held up in the city’s Finance Committee, chaired by Alderman Edward Burke (14th).

Mr. Burke, who didn’t return calls for comment, last month stalled a vote on an amendment to the Chatham shopping center development agreement by attaching a measure that would require retailers with more than 50 employees to pay an hourly wage of at least $11.03 to receive city subsidies. Without agreement on that, he has said, he won’t take action on the Chatham store.

Unions, led by the Chicago Federation of Labor, will fight to keep Wal-Mart out. In the last aldermanic election, in 2007, labor backed several successful candidates who tipped the vote count against the big discounter.

The City Council must approve zoning changes required to build stores and has other ways to block Wal-Mart expansion, as in Mr. Burke’s committee. So-called “living wage ordinances” have been aimed squarely at Wal-Mart.

To attempt to turn the council back in Wal-Mart’s favor, the ministers say they will advertise, hold community rallies and find aldermanic candidates to challenge anti-Wal-Mart incumbents.

Funding for the campaign is still being ironed out. In the fight over the big-box ordinance, Wal-Mart has financed ads for various community groups. A Wal-Mart spokesman says the company isn’t involved in the coalition.

“We’re starting by putting wood in the fire to put more steam in the engine to move this train,” Rev. Roberts says. “We’re bringing out the heavy artillery.”

©2010 by Crain Communications Inc.

Tags: Chatham Market shopping center, chicago aldermen, Rev. Alan Ragland, Rev. D. Darrell Griffin, Rev. Herbert Lee, Rev. Roosevelt Watkins, Rev. Simon Gordon, Rev. Thomas Barclay, Rev. Walter Turner, Wal-Mart

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