Nevada AFL-CIO plans to stage Wal-Mart boycott

David Strow

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

The Nevada AFL-CIO endorsed a total boycott of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Monday, a move aimed at keeping one of every five Nevadans out of the massive retailer's stores.

The boycott was passed without opposition during the organization's statewide convention, which continues today at the Luxor hotel-casino. The resolution was introduced by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has been battling Wal-Mart's efforts to open combination retail and grocery stores in Clark County.

"We don't want them to multiply," said Roberta West, president of UFCW Local 711. "We are trying to protect the community from something disastrous."

The AFL-CIO's affiliate unions represent 150,000 workers in Nevada, said Nevada AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson. By the organization's estimates, more than 300,000 people -- 20 percent of Nevada's estimated population -- live in households with one or more union members.

"I'm sure that we could hurt them, as far as profits in (Las Vegas)," West said.

The resolution requests that all AFL-CIO unions "boycott Wal-Mart/Sam's Club and tell their members 'Do Not Shop Wal-Mart/Sam's Club' as it will destroy our future." The resolution further asks all unions to "educate their members in the practices of this company."

The resolution accused Wal-Mart of failing to pay its employees livable wages or benefits, selling products made with child labor, "decimating small businesses in communities where they operate," lowering the standard of living in communities where it has stores, importing products made in foreign "sweatshops" and using "viciously anti-union practices."

Wal-Mart operates 15 stores in Nevada, including seven in the Las Vegas Valley. The company employs about 4,800 people in the state.

A company spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. However, Wal-Mart has steadfastly defended its labor and business practices in the past.

"We are a company that practices respect for the individual and the pursuit of excellence," company spokesman John Bisio told the Sun earlier this month. "Those core values guide us in how we conduct ourselves as an employer and a retailer."

West acknowledged that the boycott was motivated by Wal-Mart's efforts to bring superstores to the Valley.

"I never had a doubt that this body would approve this," she said.

Prior to the passage of the boycott proposal, speaker after speaker blasted Wal-Mart and its labor practices. Thompson noted that every major grocer in Southern Nevada is unionized, and that all could be put at risk by non-union Wal-Marts offering groceries. He called Wal-Mart "a worse challenge" than Venetian resort owner Sheldon Adelson, who has clashed repeatedly and heatedly with the Culinary Union, an AFL-CIO affiliate.

"(Wal-Mart doesn't) pay livable wages, they don't pay affordable benefits," Thompson said. "Do you know who pays that? We do!

"It is not just a union issue. It is a small business issue as well. It is about our standard of living. All of our employees have to pay to subsidize that employer."

To block the planned expansion, the UFCW has pushed for regulations by the Clark County Commission that would require any store with more than 100,000 square feet, and offering both groceries and retail products, to place each business in separate buildings. If passed, that regulation would bar Wal-Mart from building the superstores in Clark County.

Two weeks ago, the commission yanked that proposal from its agenda to be reworked. Commissioners are set to address the proposal tomorrow evening.

Union officials called on their membership to be there to confront Wal-Mart. About 200 union representatives were present at the last meeting.

"One of the most important unions in the country (the UFCW) is being threatened by this monster of a company looking to gorge itself on growth," said Mark Splain, the AFL-CIO's western regional director. "Be there on Wednesday. This is a classic case of moving forward to block the low road."

The AFL-CIO also gave its endorsement to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's plans to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center. Adelson has steadfastly opposed the center's expansion with tax-free municipal bonds. The Venetian's parent company, Las Vegas Sands Inc., owns the competing Sands Expo and Convention Center, and it views the expansion as an unfair use of public bonds that would steal business.

But in its endorsement, the AFL-CIO said the expansion was necessary "to meet customer demand and to provide operational flexibility and reliability to the LVCVA."

The resolution also opposed taking the issue to local voters, saying that such a move would unnecessarily delay the project until November 2000, and could be financed at no cost to taxpayers.

The endorsement made no mention of Adelson or Las Vegas Sands, although Adelson was hardly forgotten on the convention floor, as speakers repeatedly attacked him for his battles with the Culinary Union. The Culinary has repeatedly demanded that the Venetian consent to a card count to determine if the resort's workers want union representation, but company officials say they will only honor an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

"What he doesn't know is that when he takes on one of us, he takes on all of us," Thompson said.

Splain referred to the nearby Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino as an example of what he saw as the benefits of a company's cooperation with union officials. All of the Park Place Entertainment Inc. property's 3,500 employees are unionized.

"It opened smoothly and is running efficiently, as opposed to that mess that Sheldon Adelson calls the Venetian," Splain said.