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Inglewood City, California said no thanks to Wal-Mart
Inglewood City has said no thanks to Wal-Mart. The City Council made its decision earlier this week, with a clear 4 to 1 vote. Formally, the decision means that retail stores which exceed 155,000 square feet and which sell more than 20,000 non-taxable product items, such as food and pharmacy products, cannot be constructed. In real terms, the question was if Wal-Mart would be allowed to establish itself in Inglewood City, as the company had wanted.
All over California, trade unions and their members are fighting against Wal-Mart establishing itself in the State. "The battle is on," says Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770 in today's Los Angeles Times: "We're not going to give up what it's taken us 40 years to achieve."
California, which has until now been a 'Wal-Mart Free Zone' is being targeted by the Arkansas retail giant, which wants to build at least 40 supercenters in the largest of the US States. Wal-Mart is known as a poor employer in the United States. Recently, the company showed its real face also in Germany, where it refused to adopt the general collective agreement for commerce or effectively recognise ver.di, the country's largest trade union which is strongly present also in Wal-Mart.