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development and planning. DESCO's project will be anchored by a Target store.
Why the difference?
According to Chris Kofinis, communications director for wakeupwalmart.com, opposition to Wal-Mart stems from its size and
its impact on the market. The Wake Up Wal-Mart campaign is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers International
Union.
"They're (Wal-Mart and Target) different in a couple of significant ways," said Kofinis. "Probably the most significant
is that you are talking about a company that is roughly seven to eight times larger than Target. You are talking about a
company that is No. 2 on the Fortune 500, while Target is nowhere near the top 10. In terms of scales and scope, the impact
that comes from the fact that Wal-Mart's business model is far greater than anything Target even comes close to affecting.
From our perspective, if you change Wal-Mart, you'll change America because of the enormous size and impact this company
has."
The UFCW has a number of problems with the way Wal-Mart does business, according to Kofinis, but one of the biggest is
its policies on employee health care.
"Over half of Wal-Mart's employees don't have company health care," Kofinis said. "It costs the taxpayers $1.2 billion to
$1.4 billion dollars per year because so many Wal-Mart workers are on public healthcare systems. In 18 or 19 states,
Wal-Mart leads all employers in the number of employees on public health care. This means the American taxpayer, whether in
Illinois, Missouri or wherever, subsidizes the healthcare cost of a company that made $11.2 billion dollars in profit last
year."
Kofinis admits that he is not as knowledgeable about Target's business practices and healthcare policies but says that a
singular focus on Wal-Mart makes sense because Wal-Mart sets the market.
"The reality is that Wal-Mart doesn't follow Target. Target follows Wal-Mart," Kofinis said. "The reality is that
Wal-Mart doesn't follow Sears. Sears follows Wal-Mart, and so on. That, I think, is why Wal-Mart is the focus of so much
public and community opposition," he added.
According to Kofinis, other employers are forced to follow Wal-Mart's lead simply in order to compete.
"Let's take it from the perspective of a responsible union employer," said Kofinis. "Imagine you are competing against a
Goliath-like Wal-Mart that exploits its workers, doesn't provide affordable health care to its workers, pays poverty level
wages, doesn't provide good benefits and now has even imposed - if you can believe it - a salary cap. Think of what that
means. That means you have to compete against a company that is basically benefiting from being irresponsible. So you are
literally talking about a company that is saving billions of dollars by exploiting its workers and the taxpayers. Now
imagine the precedent that's going to be set if every company starts doing that.
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"You are going to have employer after employer saying, 'Why should I provide affordable health care to my workers when I
am a small business owner and Wal-Mart doesn't and it benefits from it?' The ripple effect from that is not somehow just
staying in the retail industry; the ripple effect is going to go through every other company that's going to follow suit.
It's going to be the airlines that are going to make the same argument one day; it's going to be the automotive companies,
or the manufacturing companies or whoever it might be. Then you are going to have a society where the only individuals that
have health care are going to be executives. They are going to be the only ones that are going to be able to afford it.
That's not what America is about."
Lawsuits are continuing in an attempt to derail both the Collinsville Crossing and Belleville Wal-Mart projects. Penni
Livingston, a Swansea attorney, is representing plaintiff Steve Malec, an officer of the local meat cutters union, in a
lawsuit against both THF Realty and the city of Belleville. The lawsuit is challenging the city's finding of blight, a key
requirement to establish a TIF district that will provide millions of dollars in tax incentives for the project. The outcome
of the suit could have a great impact on the project, according to Livingston.
"If we win the lawsuit," Livingston said, "I guess the developers don't get $28 million in tax benefits. Of course,
they're Wal-Mart, so I don't know how much of a dent in the pocketbook that would be to them."
According to Livingston, everywhere a Wal-Mart Supercenter is opened, a grocery store ends up closing in that community
within a year.
"My client has an interest in Wal-Mart because he has an interest in the way taxpayer money is being used," said
Livingston, "and I know that he also has an interest in not seeing all the grocery workers lose their jobs."
In Collinsville, the suit was initiated by two local grocery workers' union employees. They are represented by
Springfield attorney John Myers. Paul Mann, Collinsville's director of community development and tax increment financing,
says Myers has a personal vendetta against Wal-Mart.
"He hooks himself up with the food handlers' union here in town," said Mann. "He takes on these cases and tries to get
clients, tries to fight these things. We were able to successfully derail him last time and now he has a new lawsuit
challenging the business district. First it was against the TIF district and we took it out of TIF and made it a business
district. Now he is challenging the business district. By the time he (Myers) gets to court, the damn thing's going to be
built, so what's the judge going to do?"
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