Inglewood Voters Keep Out Wal-Mart

Re “Voters in Inglewood Turn Away Wal-Mart,” April 7: How utterly heartening to witness the rebuke dealt by the citizens of Inglewood to that largest of retail bullies, Wal-Mart, especially in light of the expensive campaign waged by the company. My hat’s off to all who recognized that saving a few dollars on groceries would cost them dearly in terms of the loss of wages and benefits for locals employed by the store and those the world over who produce goods for Wal-Mart. Inglewood’s mayor spoke of the $3 million to $5 million in sales tax revenues the city would see from the store. The question I’d ask the mayor is: Had Wal-Mart’s end run around Inglewood’s City Council succeeded, how many more millions of dollars would your citizens have shipped out to Bentonville, Ark.?

Michael Diehl

Glendale

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I have always thought that organized labor was in the business of creating jobs for communities. The big losers in Inglewood were the unemployed African Americans and Latinos who reside in this economically depressed community. Labor must have a twofold strategy: First, create jobs; second, fight for healthcare and living wages for workers. Shortsighted labor leaders are focusing on the latter strategy, keeping communities from getting jobs for their residents in the process. On Tuesday night, labor leaders should have been chanting “Labor defeated Inglewood” rather than “David defeated Goliath.”

Salvador Sanchez

Los Angeles