Wal-Mart: Always Low Wages, Always

Would you want to give an employer a city within your city? Would you want an employer that locks employees in the store all night? Suppose this employer paid low wages and provided few benefits? If you said no to these questions you are like the voters in Inglewood, California, who told Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, to get lost.

Last year the City Council told Wal-Mart they were not welcome in those parts and should leave town before sundown. Wal-Mart didn't get to be the largest retailer on earth by taking no for an answer. They responded by spending over $1 million on a ballot initiative. Wal-Mart wanted to take over a 60 acre site that would not have to follow zoning or any other ordinances in Inglewood. They wanted it so badly that they even paid the people getting signatures for the ballot initiative more than they pay their own workers. But they lost anyway. After Schwarzenegger became Governor I despaired of that state. It seem that at least one town has common sense. Viva Inglewood!