In the wake of a study by the University of California, Berkeley, maintaining that Wal-Mart's employee policies come at a high cost to local taxpayers, the Los Angeles City Council on Aug. 10 voted 12-1 to make it more difficult for Wal-Mart to open superstores in Los Angeles.

The ordinance requires Wal-Mart and other superstores to pay for an economic analysis to show the effect on the nearby economy before gaining approval to operate superstores, giving residents and officials more information and a greater voice in the planning process.

Since Wal-Mart's announcement a few years ago of plans to build 40 Supercenters in California --- 200,000 square-foot stores with groceries as well as the usual clothing and household goods --- it has faced opposition by some communities and labor groups who claim that the arrival of these Supercenters inevitably drive smaller merchants out of business and result in lower wages for workers.

Wal-Mart also faces opposition in cities across the nation and in some locations the retailer has sought to go around the ordinances by filing lawsuits or using ballot initiatives to repeal the government regulations.

A similar fight was waged in Inglewood earlier this year when Wal-Mart attempted to use a ballot measure that would allow it to build a Supercenter without going through any of the usual planning studies or public hearings. It was roundly defeated by local voters despite Wal-Mart's spending over a million dollars on television and newspaper ads and community canvassing to win support for the initiative.

And last year the threat of Wal-Mart's entry into the California supermarket business was a driving force behind the Vons/Pavillions, Ralphs and Albertsons supermarket workers strike, said local union leaders.

"Southern California grocery workers endured a four-and-a-half month strike and lockout because their employees perceived a competitive threat from Wal-Mart," said Rick Icaza, president of UFCW Local 770. "Today the Los Angeles City Council took an enormous step toward approving an ordinance that could well remove this threat in Los Angeles and help prevent such a devastating strike from happening again."

Wal-Mart officials say that their stores help rather than hurt communities by providing low prices, jobs and sales and tax revenue.

But after studying Wal-Mart's costs for taxpayers between March 2001 and March 2002, Berkeley labor researches asserted that "Wal-Mart is essentially shifting part of its labor costs onto the public."

Researchers Arindrajit Dube, Ph.D, and Ken Jacobs found that Wal-Mart's employment policies cost California taxpayers approximately $86 million a year in public assistance to company workers.

The study indicates that Wal-Mart workers in California rely on the state for about $32 million annually in health-related services and $54 million a year in other assistance such as subsidized school lunches, food stamps and subsidized housing.

"When workers do not earn enough to support themselves and their families through their own jobs, they rely on public safety net programs to make ends meet," wrote Dube of Berkeley's Institute for Industrial Relations and Jacobs of Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education.

The study noted that if other retailers cut their wages and benefits to the levels offered by Wal-Mart, the cost to California's public-assistance programs would rise by $410 million annually.