FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED SEPT. 10, 1999
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Union bosses oppose new jobs
At the behest of County Commissioner Erin Kenny -- in turn acting at the behest of union officials involved in a national campaign to punish Wal-Mart Stores for daring to operate "non-union" -- the Clark County Commission is considering an ordinance to block Wal-Mart's plans to build three to five massive combination retail and grocery stores in the Las Vegas valley.
Ms. Kenny now disingenuously simpers that she's only concerned about smoking areas and slot machine placement. Yeah, right. This ordinance is a classic piece of special-interest legislation, tailored specifically to block Wal-Mart's plans by banning retail outlets of more than 100,000 square feet from merging more than 2,000 squarefeet of food and grocery offerings under the same roof.
Why would it be all right for a mega-store of, say, 90,000 feet to offer groceries? Why ban groceries, but not pets, or plants, or restaurants (as in a shopping mall food court?)
The only answer, of course, is "because that's what Wal-Mart wants to do." (Though in the "unintended consequences" department, grocery discount outfits like Costco Wholesale Corp. worry the legislation could end up affecting them, as well.)
It's no secret where this is coming from. Ms. Kenny drafted her proposal following a July visit from union officials participating in a campaign to cause financial harm to Wal-Mart, nationwide, for daring to operate "non-union."
"Our ordinance" -- note the possessive -- "is not asking that there's never again a Wal-Mart built in our community," explains Roberta West, president of Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 711, and generous to a fault. "It puts them out of the grocery business, which puts the community in better shape."
Really? Lots of folks already buy groceries at Sam's Club -- Wal-Mart's "members only" warehouse store -- and even standard Wal-Marts sell some food items. Will there now be Metro raids to seize the big bags of cheese puffs and the discount toilet paper?
Anyway, why would this be a good idea? How on earth is the community "in better shape" if there's less competition for food price and selection? This doesn't even make sense from the point of view of traditional union organizing, which would have welcomed the arrival of new stores with new grocery workers, as a ripe field for possible membership recruitment.
No, these unions no longer look forward to the opportunity to explain to gainfully employed workers the relative benefits of joining the union, and then calling for a secret ballot. Instead, they hope to use political muscle, intimidation, and extortion to actually prevent the creation of new working-class jobs in Nevada!
You see, hundreds of new jobs "with inferior benefits" would hurt th local economy and strain the valley's public health system, the union officials argue.
Imagine that: New jobs, bad.
Gracious, what would a business have to do to meet this new test of "acceptable job creation," I wonder -- promise to build a private hospital and offer free medical care for all employees, so as not to "strain" our existing, near-bankrupt, socialist welfare institutions?
Hey, (start ital)there's(end ital) a way to reach zero growth in a hurry.
"The proponents make a reasonable case about the harmful effects that certain businesses have," opines Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, usually a voice of relative moderation and reason on the county board.
No they don't. No one thinks Wal-Mart's proposed new stores would poison the air or groundwater, or turn Nevada's youth into homicidal zombies. The only "harmful effects" such businesses have is occasionally driving out smaller "mom-and-pop" outfits that can no longer find a sustainable market niche.
Yes, such change can create hardships on a few, as well as whittling away the picturesque old "downtowns" we remember from the old Jimmy Stewart movies.
But under that logic, Clark County should have banned auto dealers long ago, in order to block the likely "harmful effects" on local livery stables. And they (start ital)certainly(end ital) should never have allowed in these newfangled "home computer" stores -- look what (start ital)they(end ital) did to the fine local merchants who used to sell manual typewriters, eyeshades, and green ledger books.
It is disgusting that the County Commission would consider blocking the arrival or expansion of a legal, taxpaying, non-hazardous employer for any reason. But for our county commissioners to hire themselves out as union goons, punishing an employer for even daring to open "non-union" in a right-to-work state? Why not just pass an ordinance granting the unions a veto over all new construction?
The demonstrable arbitrariness of Ms. Kenny's proposal would set a highly effective precedent -- if our goal is to stop new employers from arriving here, entirely.
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $21.95 plus $3 shippingthrough Mountain Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127, via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html, or by dailing 1-800-244-2224.
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Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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