Mayor Mike McGinn, who’s in a tight race for reelection, is coming out against Whole Foods’ plan to open a store in West Seattle. The mayor is attempting to block a mixed-use building development permit for the organic-in-name-only chain because the company does not pay their workers enough.
It’s hard to know who to root for in this battle – the pandering mayor who is grasping at straws (he warned that the SPD has to keep on beating up residents or else he’ll have to cut the budget) or Whole Foods (aka “Whole Paycheck”) whose libertarian bent leads them to chronic union busting.
McGinn told the Seattle Times:
“I’m setting a new standard here, that we are going to look at the wages they pay, and benefits, when a company wants to develop with land that involves public property. This is the first time anyone has used this justification when making these kinds of decisions.”
Whole Foods pays “significantly lower” wages and benefits than other area grocers but, as the Times points out, the company has been listed as one of the “100 best places to work” by Fortune Magazine 16 years in a row….
….but, in this economy, there are only about 100 places to work in the US anyway. We’re siding with McGinn this time (and Seattle workers ALWAYS).
Whole Foods needs to stop selling GMO and their co-CEO John Mackey should quit the Rand Paul schtick.
