Thursday, Sept. 9, 1999 | 11:29 a.m.
In the minds of Clark County planners, an ordinance drafted to keep big-box stores out of the Las Vegas Valley was designed to prevent parking-lot accidents between vehicles and pedestrians.
But to a flock of influential union workers, the ordinance should have a lone intent: To prevent a nonunion Wal-Mart Supercenter from opening its doors and creating competition for organized grocery stores.
Clark County officials don't appear to know exactly what the ordinance should say: For the second time in a month, the board pulled the proposal from its agenda on Wednesday and asked for it to be reworked.
The commission's action baffled about 200 union members who packed the chambers wearing bright-green stickers that read "Save good jobs -- stop Wal-Mart."
Roberta West, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), said her organization submitted its own proposed ordinance after reading the revised law presented to the commissioners Wednesday.
The county ordinance says stores of more than 100,000 square feet with more than 2,000 square feet devoted to groceries must be split into two buildings at least 200-feet apart.
The union proposal -- which, according to West, county planners helped draft -- says any store of more than 110,000 square feet cannot dedicate more than 2 percent of its retail space to groceries. In addition, the union would like to see the two stores located in separate shopping centers.
West said similar ordinances have passed in other cities around the nation and feared the Clark County board might be waffling.
"They'll say anything with Wal-Mart lobbying the hell out of them," West said. "The commission in Tucson (Ariz.) is not balking at it. They know their responsibility to the county."
Commissioners said the latest draft of the ordinance was yanked because they feared it would prevent Costco Wholesale Inc. from moving into the valley. West said the union ordinance would not have interfered with any Costco plans.
"We made absolutely sure it wouldn't," West said. "The intent is not to stop Costco; we would have revised everything we proposed if it stopped Costco."
In a letter to Assistant Planning Director Lesa Coder, the union questions the 200-foot distance requirement between stores and encourages the county to do away with the existing proposed ordinance.
"In the staff's draft ... the equivalent of a supermarket can be included in a big-box store with minimal effort," the letter says. "The distance appears to have been pulled out of a hat and serves no purpose."
A weary Daphne Davis, a Wal-Mart spokesman who flew in from the company's Arkansas headquarters for Wednesday's meeting, said she is still trying to interpret the language in the ordinance.
"We're still trying to understand the intent of this ordinance," Davis said. "We're trying to get a handle on what is transpiring."
Davis said she was surprised by the streams of union members who filled the seats inside the commission chambers. Members of the Culinary Union attended in support of their sister union.
Shortly after it was announced that the introduction of the ordinance would be delayed until Sept. 22, union workers traversed to the front of the County Government Center where they gathered, chanting "We'll be back."
They then proceeded to blast Wal-Mart for its low wages and cutthroat business strategies.
West said Wal-Mart's benefits packages are only offered to full-time employees and the manner in which schedules are made out allows few employees to work 40-hour weeks. She said when uninsured workers are injured, taxpayers are stuck with the bills.
She said the valley's major grocery stores anchor shopping centers. By drawing consumers to centers for groceries, smaller shop situated alongside super markets benefits. One-stop shopping businesses like Wal-Mart snuff out the smaller businesses, West said.
"There is only one winner with a Wal-Mart Supercenter," she said. "And that's Wal-Mart."
Davis took exception to the comments, saying Wal-Mart has one goal -- to provide low prices to consumers.
"It's simple," she said. "We provide customers with what they want. They want selection, quality convenience and value."
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