Monday Morning One Liners

Kroger and its 10,000 cashiers, stock crews, meat cutters, deli helpers and other Louisville-area workers who belong to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227 overwhelmingly ratified a contract Tuesday that preserves an increasingly rare pension plan that is 100 percent funded by the grocery chain.

Wal-Mart pulled dozens of products containing BPA plastic in Canada, but has yet to pull them in the United States.

The Fresh Market has retained investment bank Goldman Sachs as the supermarket considers offers for outside investment. In a statement on Wednesday, The Fresh Market said it will evaluate several opportunities during the next several months. The company will continue to operate as it has.

Kroger stores are offering 'Free Groceries' through a gift program.

IGA here said yesterday it plans to hold its first U.S.-specific retailer meeting in more than a decade Nov. 6-8. Read more of this story

The Grocery Manufacturers Association issued a statement here last week relating that the proposals outlined in the discussion draft of the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008 would likely increase food prices and impose unnecessary regulatory burdens.
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Around 53 workers, primarily software engineers, are to be laid off at Shaw’s Supermarkets in Mass., reports said last week.
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Developments

The city begins the approval process today for the massive redevelopments of Willets Point and Hunters Point South. The seven-month process entails gaining approval from the communities, the City Planning Commission and the City Council. Queens business owners and residents have raised concerns that the projects would displace businesses and drive up the cost of housing, as 60 percent of the residential units would be reserved for middle-income New Yorkers, and the rest would be sold at market rate. The process follows the recent controversial rezoning of 125th Street in Harlem.
More at: [Crain's]

The NYC unemployment rate, which has continued grow since last summer, rose 0.2% in March.

A monumental century-old power plant sitting on the Brooklyn waterfront and featuring a stout stone foundation and 4-story high arched windows with cream colored terra-cotta trim is being demolished brick by brick, upsetting local preservationists.

NY Post (Reuven Blau): $200M HEALTH-CARE CUTS EYED

The Bloomberg administration has taken its first step toward slashing health-care benefits for city workers by $200 million - a plan announced in the mayor's preliminary 2008 budget. During a meeting Thursday, Labor Commissioner James Hanley submitted a list of proposed changes to the Municipal Labor Committee, which bargains health-care rights for the city's more than 300,000 teachers, cops, firefighters and other workers. "This is the beginning of a process," Hanley told The Post. The mayor has argued that cutting the city's health-care obligations would help shore up projected budget gaps of $4.2 billion in 2010, $5.6 billion in 2011, and $5.3 billion in 2012.

Newsday (Dan Janison): L.I. SENATE WAR

Local sources tell Newsday's Rick Brand that Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley would be the state Democrats' top choice to challenge veteran Sen. Cesar Trunzo. …Senate Democrats were said to be testing Foley's name in polls. And Bob Master, state co-chair of the Working Families Party, which partners with Democrats in Senate races, has discussed it with Foley. Starting tomorrow, the party plans to target Trunzo and Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) in an "issues" campaign, slamming the Senate GOP on paid family leave. Which Democrat will face Hannon, though, also remains hazy.