The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed a proposed law that would make it harder for Wal-Mart to erect superstores in the city by requiring the company to study whether surrounding areas would be harmed by the addition of the mammoth centers.
City officials pushing the law believe that Wal-Mart may have a tough time showing that its mega-stores would have a positive impact on communities, which could give the City Council a reason to reject them.
But Wal-Mart officials declared Tuesday that the proposed law was a win for the company, saying the firm kept Los Angeles from adopting an all-out ban on the Supercenters -- 200,000-square-foot stores that combine the traditional discount offerings with groceries.
Under the ordinance, retailers wanting to build stores larger than 100,000 square feet that devote more than 10% of their sales floor to food and other nontaxable items would have to pay for an economic analysis. The report would forecast whether a proposed store would eliminate jobs, depress wages or harm neighborhood businesses in many parts of the city.
"This is highly significant," said Nelson Lichtenstein of the Center for Work, Labor and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara. He added that the law, which has the support of 13 of the 15 council members, could help transform the way the world's largest company does business.
The council gave its initial approval to the law Tuesday and will vote today on the actual ordinance, which applies not only to Wal-Mart but also to other retailers, such as Target.
The ordinance could become effective as soon as September.
Labor leaders and their allies on the council hope the law will become a national model. Since the nonunion Wal-Mart announced plans to build 40 Supercenters across California, unions and some local governments have battled the Bentonville, Ark., company.
Tuesday's City Council vote on the issue, one of labor's top priorities, comes in the midst of a mayoral election campaign in which two candidates, incumbent James K. Hahn and Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, are vying for union support. In 2001, when the pair also faced off, Villaraigosa had the backing of much of organized labor.
Hahn and Villaraigosa both support the proposed law.
Two years ago Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Ed Reyes proposed banning superstores in economically depressed areas of the city, but later scaled back their measure.
