Wal-Mart Proposal Angers Unions in Baldwin Park

Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano isn’t used to getting death threats. And, at first glance, the issue before him and the City Council didn’t seem that serious--a plan to bring a Wal-Mart to the city.

When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. comes to a small town, tempers sometimes flare as mom-and-pop stores feel the heat from the world’s largest retailer. But Baldwin Park is hardly a small town. With 75,000 residents 17 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, it is a blue-collar, predominantly Latino community willing to roll out the red carpet for new retailers.

So why the death threats? Why the petition drive against Wal-Mart? And why were police called this month to eject rowdy store opponents from the council chamber before the City Council green-lighted the project?

Because in this community where Democrats and union hats are common, labor fears Wal-Mart will open one of a new generation of “supercenter” stores, with groceries and nonunion labor. The development agreement for the project--called Baldwin Park Market-place--does not include a grocery store but gives Wal-Mart the option to open one. The company said that is unlikely.

“We’ve no plans for supercenters in California,” said Peter Kanelos, Wal-Mart’s community relations manager for the region.

Union leaders don’t put much stock in that assertion. California’s supermarket chains are almost universally union operations.

Unions aren’t fans of the typical Wal-Mart, and they are even less enamored of supercenters--the newest part of the company’s empire, which includes more than 2,600 Wal-Mart stores and 475 Sam’s Clubs nationwide.

Baldwin Park is a beachhead in the battle being fought nationwide between supermarket unions and Wal-Mart, one of the nation’s largest private employers.

Rediscovering Civic Self-Esteem

In Baldwin Park, the struggle over the Wal-Mart is a symbolic one for a city that is rediscovering its civic self-esteem, thanks in part to the arrival of major retailers in recent years. Two decades ago a Rand Corp. study said that when it came to economic opportunities, Baldwin Park was a disaster area.

Lozano said Wal-Mart will revive a parcel of land near where the 605 Freeway meets the San Bernardino Freeway and where little but weeds and prostitution flourish today. For too many years, he said, neighboring communities such as West Covina have lured the prized retailers.

Lozano said he understands the unions’ concerns. The 42-year-old Democrat was once a Teamster. Even so, “Baldwin Park is going to change, and no one is going to stop it,” he said.

Union leaders and some residents said it will be a change for the worse.

Wal-Marts are the “grim reaper for supermarkets. They threaten well-paid union supermarket jobs that are good for the community,” said Joe F. Barragan, president of United Food and Commercial Worker International Union Local 1428. “The folks who work for Wal-Mart cannot afford to buy cars at local dealerships and homes in the city, and that all affects the local economy.”

Wal-Mart said its workers receive “competitive wages and a comprehensive benefits package” that includes medical benefits and a 401(k).

“The UFCW can attack us if they want; our focus is going to continue to be to take care of our associates and customers--treat them fairly and with respect,” said Jessica Moser, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. “Union organizers are trying to stop our growth, but the bottom line is our customers want our stores and our associates want good-paying jobs with benefits and to work for a company who cares about the community and gives back.”

Debates over Wal-Marts have often been contentious, but in Baldwin Park they have turned ugly.

Lozano and Councilman Ricardo Pacheco have reported to police nightly telephone calls from anonymous Wal-Mart opponents. “They’d say, ‘We’re going to get you,’ ” Lozano said.

Police officers escorted the pair as well as Councilwomen Linda Gair and Marlen Garcia to their cars after the Oct. 3 council meeting. Gair and Garcia joined Lozano and Pacheco in a 4-1 vote to approve a development agreement with Lewis Investment Co., a limited liability company, for the project and its environmental impact report.

$22-Million Investment

Pacheco said that, as a union member who grew up in Baldwin Park, he understood it was a tough vote. He told the crowd Oct. 3 that he was born into a union family and vividly recalls how, as a youngster, his father was on strike for two hard months.

But Pacheco said that it is wrong for union officials from outside the community to use Baldwin Park as a battleground, and that the city can ill afford a blighted landscape.

Some apartment buildings and several rundown motels will make way for the Wal-Mart, several shops, four restaurants and a Wal-Mart gas station. Although the option exists for a grocery store, Lozano said, “that does not mean they’ll open a supermarket. It has yet to be decided.”

The marketplace is a $22-million investment for the city. Construction is slated for next year, with the marketplace due to open in summer 2003.

An Auto Nation was originally planned for the 24-acre site, but the car dealer pulled out in 1999, said Rick Forintos, the city’s redevelopment director. He said the city has acquired all but 10 of 40 parcels that make up the project area.

Wal-Mart promises to provide 300 jobs and $600,000 in annual tax revenue for Baldwin Park. In the last few years the city has lured Target, Home Depot, Starbucks, Party City, Payless Shoes and Harley-Davidson. The city’s slogan these days is “Hub of the San Gabriel Valley.”

As Baldwin Park eyes its future, it keeps in mind lessons from the past. It doesn’t want to repeat history. In the 1950s, as other cities took advantage of the new San Bernardino Freeway, putting their commerce in sight of offramps, Baldwin Park stubbornly kept its business districts along the old Red Car lines--a move that spelled commercial doom.

There is little the unions and other opponents can do to stop Wal-Mart from coming to Baldwin Park, barring a lawsuit.

Opponents said it is too late for a ballot initiative, but they promised political retribution at the next council election. “There are 5,000 union families in your town and we don’t go away,” said Rick Middleton, a local Teamsters leader.

Councilman Bill Van Cleave, who opposed Wal-Mart and owns the local True Value Hardware store, said he does not see it as a competitor.

But he said that it will not create many good jobs and that the city could make better use of the land.

“I am not anti-Wal-Mart,” he said. “I am pro-Baldwin Park.”