The Chicago city council unanimously approved Wal-Mart's proposal to build a second store in the city, pleasing some unions and angering others. The company reached a deal with the Chicago & Cook County Building & Construction Trades Council to have them build all facilities in northern Illinois for the next three years. However, other unions and community groups say that the company has no agreement with them on wages or working conditions for non-construction jobs. A spokesman for the company confirmed that they made no deals regarding wages for hourly workers, and that the deal with the construction workers was similar to others in Illinois. Wal-Mart plans to build several dozen stores in Chicago, and 55 stores in northern Illinois in the next three years. The company is expected to create around 10,000 hourly positions and 2,000 construction positions in Chicago.
See "Wal-Mart Cracks Chicago by Splitting Union, Non-Union Workers", Leslie Patton and Matthew Boyle, Bloomberg News, July 21, 2010