The City Council’s Zoning Committee today voted unanimously to give preliminary approval to the Pullman Park project and its Wal-Mart store, which will be the second in Chicago.
The full council is expected to give final approval to the plan Wednesday.
After receiving the favorable vote, a spokesman for Wal-Mart said the company had made no agreement to do anything out of its ordinary practices at the new store on the South Side.
Although he acknowledged meetings with labor leaders, Wal-Mart official Steve Restivo told reporters outside the council chambers that the only deal the company had made was with the residents of the South Side.
“There were not any negotiations. There were not any proposals. There were no deals,” Restivo said.
With the opening of the city’s second store set for 2012, Restivo said any raises for employees there would be based on performance.
“I don’t know too many jobs that guarantee wages,” Restivo said. “Our folks at Wal-Mart are well-treated. Our associates are well-compensated.”
He said non-management employees at the company’s first Chicago store, on the West Side, are paid an average of $11.77 an hour.
As Restivo spoke to reporters, he was flanked by Gyata Kimmons, a lobbyist and former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley. The Chicago News Cooperative reported the company’s hiring of clout-heavy lobbyists in April.
Asked if the company hired such help at the behest of any local leaders, Restivo replied that Kimmons likely got his job in the same fashion that Restivo and Wal-Mart’s more than 1 million other employees were hired.
