Discount shoppers could know soon if Chicago will get its second Wal-Mart.
The City Council's zoning committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether the retailer can build a store on the far South Side.
Plans to let Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expand inside the city limits have been on hold while the giant retailer and unions negotiate over wages that labor leaders have complained are too low.
Walmart on Monday offered to pay workers a minimum of $8.75 an hour in return for the ability to build dozens of stores around the city.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) announced the wage concession after a meeting with city unions and representatives of the Arkansas-based retailer.
Beale said that although the new wage offering isn't completely what unions wanted -- they'd demanded that Walmart pay its workers a living wage of at least $11.03 -- the current economic climate and the promise of new jobs is just too great to pass up
