Walmart strikes city-wide Community Benefits Agreement

Read the report by Michael Niebauer in the Washington Business Journal. According to the WBJ's sources, the agreement includes:

• Wal-Mart will work with the Department of Small and Local Business Development to identify certified business enterprises — small, local, minority owned contractors — who can take on jobs during store construction. The retailers will encourage, but not require, its general contractors to meet a 35 percent CBE goal.
  
• Wal-Mart will create and fund a workforce development program with a focus on low-income residents, minorities, at-risk youth, released convicts and veterans.
  
• Wal-Mart will open hiring centers in each ward where stores are planned — Wards 4, 5, 6 and 7 — with the expectation of filling a majority of available positions with D.C. residents. It will also hold job fairs and work with the District government to identify candidates.
  
• The retailer will not sell guns or ammunition.
  
• Wal-Mart will seek out local retailers to provide goods and services within their stores — coffee shops, for example.
  
• While Wal-Mart has not agreed to pay a “living wage,” it will pay its employees competitive market salaries as compared to its D.C. competitors.
  
• With regard to transportation, Wal-Mart has agreed to install Capital Bikeshare stations, bus shelters and bike racks near its stores, and work with Metro to assess existing bus routes.
  
• Community advisory committees, comprised of residents, businesses and nonprofits within 1,000 feet of each store, will be formed and Wal-Mart will meet with them quarterly.

Initital thoughts: Contractors will benefit; I'm certainly not going to complain about the Capital Bikeshare part; and this really seems like the bare minimum.