Lawsuit Filed to Stop Wal-Mart Supercenter
City News Service - December 18, 2003

Inglewood business and community leaders filed a lawsuit today seeking to block a ballot initiative that, if approved, would allow Wal- Mart to build a "supercenter" in the city without public oversight.

The initiative would allow for building permits to be issued without a public hearing or an environmental impact study.

The Coalition for a Better Inglewood, an alliance of community members, religious leaders, business owners and workers, filed the lawsuit opposing the April ballot measure in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The coalition claims the measure would allow Wal-Mart to build its first Los Angeles-area supercenter -- which sells groceries in addition to Wal- Mart's usual fare -- and that it would set a dangerous national precedent by preempting nearly all local and state control over the development process.

"Wal-Mart, already the most powerful company in the world, is now trying to take over the historic role of democratic government and strip residents of the right to control their own future," said Rev. Altagracia Perez, a minister at Holy Faith Episcopal Church.

The "big-box" plan has turned into a bitter issue since Wal-Mart made its intentions known last year, and contributed to a Southland supermarket strike and lockout now in its 10th week.

The company announced plans to build 40 supercenters in California, which opponents say would threaten existing supermarkets that typically provide higher wages and benefits than nonunion Wal-Mart stores.

Wal-Mart representatives did not immediately return a call for comment.

The Inglewood City Council in October 2002 adopted an emergency ordinance barring construction of retail stores that exceed 155,000 square feet and sell more than 20,000 nontaxable items such as food and pharmacy products.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union local chapter, whose members have been involved in a strike and lockout for two months with Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Ralphs supermarkets, helped draft the ordinance.

But Wal-Mart, through a group called the Citizens Committee to Welcome Wal- Mart to Inglewood, gathered more than 9,000 signatures on petitions to force a public vote, saying the city council didn't have Inglewood residents' best interests in mind.

Wal-Mart is planning to build the store on a dirt lot next to Hollywood Park.

Silvia Hopper, a 35-year resident of Inglewood, said if the measure is successful, it would deny the community and local government any say over quality-of-life issues such as crime, noise, pollution, the survival of small business and job quality.

"If the Wal-Mart initiative goes forward, there will be no public meetings to discuss the pros and cons of this project," she said.

"There will be no opportunity for our elected officials to review the project and make sure it meets the real needs of the community," she said.

Perez said, "despite its track record of replacing good jobs with poverty- wage jobs, driving out small businesses and destroying communities, Wal-Mart is asking voters to sign away all their rights to regulate development in their community."

Meantime, other supermarket chains are also against the supercenters, and are seeking to cut health insurance benefits to union employees to become competitive with nonunion supermarkets.

According to statistics from the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, also a plaintiff in the suit, Wal-Mart pays its grocery workers an estimated $9 an hour in wages and benefits, $10 less than big supermarkets nationwide.