Top 10 Stories This Week: Americans Aren't Lovin' It, Wage Theft, Right to Work Chicago?!

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McDonald's $9 million Super Bowl ad shows customers paying with love...Maybe they should show employees some McLovin'?

In December McDonald's workers took to the streets to protest low wages, dreadful working conditions, and no stability.  The $9m McLovin' ad, isn't fooling anyone in the press, and really don't make sense to employees who have an open civil rights suit against the company . Heck, even Managers are admitting to Wage Theft, it's a bad time to be a clown.

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Protesters gathered in front of Walmart heiress Alice Walton's Park Avenue apartment in NYC this week, demanding Walmart ends retaliation against its workers.  Follow #walmartstrikers for more photos and info.

WHAT'S NEWS THIS WEEK 1. Fairway sees Improvements in Q3 New CEO is seeing some immediate improvements. 2. U.S. Added 46,000 Retail Jobs in January

3. Governor of Illinois Targets Labor, Seeks a 'Right to Work' State Joining the ranks of Republican governors taking aim at the power of labor unions, the new chief executive of Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner, said on Wednesday that the state should ban some political contributions by public employee unions and allow local “right to work” laws.  This is a story we all need to pay close attention to and fight back against.

4. We Built the Middle Class & We Can Re-Build It Most members of Congress today are millionaires. Their wealth has increased 28 percent since 2007, while that of the average American fell 43 percent.  How can they relate to us?

5. Americans: No Longer Lovin' It Is this the downfall of McDonald's?  After airing a Super Bowl ad asking customers to pay with love, employees are asking, where is our love?

6. Haggen begins to re-banner Albertsons The Safeway-Albertsons merge is done, and here's the new banner. Executives are very optimistic, others, not so much.

7. Wegman's tops 'reputation' poll Company tops Costco & Amazon

8. Want to be Happy? Join a Union New study shows belonging to a union leads to a more satisfied life.

9. Target names new CIO from Tesco

10. Walmart's Echinacea has No Echinacea Bottles of Walmart-brand echinacea, an herb said to ward off colds, were found to contain no echinacea at all. The NY Attorney General unveiled a report showing retail chains getting over on their customers with supplements. 11. Report: Hospitals Fails to Protect Nurses from becoming Patients According to surveys by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are more than 35,000 back and other injuries among nursing employees every year, severe enough that they have to miss work.

12. NYC Construction Workers March Against Junk Jobs

13. World's Email Encryption Software Depends on One Guy, Who is Going Bankrupt

The man who built the free email encryption software used by whistleblower Edward Snowden, as well as hundreds of thousands of journalists, dissidents and security-minded people around the world, is running out of money to keep his project alive.

14. Unions Re-Powering Civil Rights  Movement & Protests: Black History Month

During the recent wave of protests around the nation over the killing of unarmed blacks by police, an old ally has reemerged to march in step with African-Americans seeking justice — organized labor.

Elsewhere NYC News:

LSSA 280 is on Strike. On January 30th,  MFY union members voted to reject the unreasonable contract offered by MFY management, and are now on strike. Please join our MFY members on the picket line: The union will be picketing MFY, 299 Broadway in lower Manhattan, Monday through Thursday from 8:30am-10am.

Thank You:

It's often a thankless job, so we'd like to say, thank you. And thank you for being a subscriber. 

A&P Emerges From Bankruptcy

Attention all Local 1500 Members working for Pathmark, yesterday A&P/Pathmark announced they have exited Bankruptcy.

Here is their Full Company Press Release: http://www.aptea.com/pressRoom_article.asp?id=248

Article from the Associated Press:

MONTVALE, N.J. (AP) — The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc., which was once the nation's largest grocer, said Tuesday that it has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a private company.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2010 after struggling with weak sales and enormous debts.

The grocer, known for its A&P chain, has secured financing for operations, refurbished some stores and negotiated new agreements with suppliers and its employee unions.

It also has a new management team in place. The company announced Tuesday that it has named Raymond Silcock as its chief financial officer. He joined the company in 2011 as head of finance. Silcock replaces Frederic Brace, who is resigning from his role as chief restructuring, financial and administrative officer now that the bankruptcy process is complete.

"In just over one year, we have completed a thorough restructuring of A&P's cost structure and balance sheet to build a strong foundation for the company's future," Sam Martin, A&P's president and CEO said in a statement. "With the full support of our financial partners, the new A&P is committed to delivering exceptional value and an enhanced in-store experience to all of our customers."

The company operates more than 300 grocery and drug stores in six states under the A&P, Best Cellars, Food Basics, The Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum's names

A&P, based in Montvale, was founded in 1859 and is considered one of the country's first supermarket chains.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Sears to Close 100-120 Kmart & Sears Stores, Affecting Thousands of Retail Workers

Image via Wikipedia

This morning Sears announced they will be closing 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears stores due to poor sales and lack of competition to rivals like Target & Walmart.  Earlier this year Sears announced they would close 10 stores.  Though all major media outlets continue to only focus on what this means for the stock and shareholders of Sears/Kmart, the closing of stores is expected to lay off or displace over 1,000 Sears/Kmart retail employees.  Our hearts and best wishes go out to those who will be affected by the store closings.

From The Associated Press:

Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores after poor sales during the holidays, the most crucial time of year for retailers.  

The store closings follow its announcement last quarter it would shutter 10 stores. Kmart and Sears have a combined 2,177 U.S. big box locations and another 500 in Canada.
A list of which stores closing will be available at www.searsmedia.com.

Wall Street analysts have long faulted Sears for not investing enough to make its stores appealing. Sears is "effectively asking customers to pay for a poorer shopping environment" than other chains, Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter said in a note to clients.
Balter was also surprised that Sears would borrow money during the holidays, which are typically a peak cash flow period.

Sears blamed poor consumer electronics sales in a tough economic environment "especially for big-ticket items" for more than half of the decline in its namesake chain's domestic same-store sales. 

AP: Target's Honeymoon Could be Over

The headline says it all.  Yesterday, the Associated Press wrote about the Target workers from Valley Stream (NY) who began the movement change a billion dollar company. The movement derived from a group of workers uniting together and demanding respect.

Target's response? An all out blitzkrieg of anti-union propaganda and intimidation.  From anti-union websites  (which was conveniently taken down, head here for a recap on it) to anti-union videos to dispersing literature which threatened to close the store if the union won, Target took no consideration for labor laws or their team members.  Lying to team members about what would happen if the union won was a decision to choose more profits and lucrative raises for execs rather than respect for their employees.  Target's honeymoon is over, the national attention from the election at Valley Stream showed the American public the type of company they really are, one who has little respect for the hard working people who make their company so successful.  Target still has the opportunity to change, and they should start by respecting their employees.

Check out the AP Story here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g2SKMVezanZJIzYQIrcwI-SeGUAA?docId=51177466b85642beb08509b22672b16b

Help the movement grow, suggest Target Change (www.facebook.com/targetchange) to your co-workers and friends!

Related articles

• Target Change (ufcwblog.blogspot.com)
• Target's honeymoon could be over (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Tuesday Morning One Liners: Wal-Mart's Newest NYC Push, Polling

Wal-Mart

Join the Wal-Mart Free NYC Coalition on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wal-Mart-Free-NYC/151784818201968

Crain's updates the 'Wal-Mart Comes to Town' hearing which was originally scheduled for today, and has been rescheduled to January 12.  More @ Brooklyn Eagle.

Walmart has yet to decide if it will send a representative to address the city council, but its director of community affairs, Steven Restivo, told Crains’s New York Business last week the company would do what it can to help inform the discussion but he did not see the need for a council hearing.

AP: Fail twice, try again [Walmart & NYC].

NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn told Walmart they're not welcome in NYC, citing underpaying their employees. 

NY Daily News: Wal-Mart may land in East New York, Community braces for Big Box retailer.

Wall Street Journal: Wal-Mart seeks Union Support for NYC Store.  Here's a WSJ Poll if Wal-Mart should open a store in NYC or not.

ABC News: Wal-Mart courts Building Trade Unions for NYC Store.

New York Times: Wal-Mart tries again for a NYC store.

Forbes reports that analysts love Walmart's potential expansion in and NY and that they're leaving Moscow.


Conveniently, Walmart (Wal-Mart) conducted a poll which found that 'small businesses want Wal-Mart'. NY Mag was the only media outlet to call Wal-Mart's poll out (for conducting their own poll).

Last night, Richard Lipsky from the Neighborhood Retail Alliance joined Neil Cavuto on Fox News to discuss Wal-Mart and NYC. [YouTube]

A&P

Supermarket News: A&P’s last-ditch effort for additional funding fell short when supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers refused to provide cost concessions, leading in part to the retailer’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, A&P said Monday.

Crain's is also reporting that A&P will likely retain their NYC stores.  Citing that their 58 city supermarkets are among their strongest and have always attracted buyers.

Bankruptcy puts 5,500 Philly jobs in jeopardy.

Bloomberg News summarizes details of the bankruptcy.

WHY IT HAPPENED: The company, which owns A&P, Pathmark, Super Fresh and other grocery stores, has struggled for years with heavy debt and sinking sales. Its problems were compounded when the recession hit and consumers cut back spending and competition among grocery stores, discounters and other retailers intensified. The grocer is also struggling with pension costs, leases for closed stores, a troublesome contract with a key supplier and a roughly $13 million payment for interest on a debt that is due Wednesday.

Progressive Grocer: A&P Files for Bankruptcy


Elsewhere...

UFCW Local 27 has been protesting a ShopRite in Bel Air.

Friday Morning One-Liners: Stop & Shop coming to Oceanside? Shaw's workers will march...

 “They stalk the workers and attack them. The nephew of an employer knifed one of the employees we assist,” Axt said. She said New York falls behind other states like New Mexico and Arizona, which have better wage enforcement and more strict penalties.
 Deborah Axt, deputy director of Make the Road New York, at on the Wage Theft Prevention Act, in the Queens Chronicle.

The Hartford Courant, covers ShopRite's plans to take over Connecticut.
ShopRite said Tuesday it will open new stores in Canton, Enfield, Stratford and Hamden at former Shaw's locations next week.  The Hamden store will open on May 28; the other three will open May 26.

SEIU, UFCW, lead suit against discriminatory law in Arizona.

Boston.com: Shaw's Strikers Borrow from History, Planning a Five-Day March:
When striking Shaw’s warehouse workers embark on a five-day march this weekend to draw renewed attention to their nearly three-month fight against the supermarket company, they will also be evoking the civil rights and farm workers’ marches of the 1960s.

“You can’t win a strike these days, generally speaking, just walking around on a picket line,’’ said Russ Davis, executive director of Jobs With Justice, which helped plan the march.

Miley Cyrus goes toxic at Walmart:
Via WakeUpWalmart: UPDATE May 20, 9 AM: At approximately 7:45 last evening the AP reported that Walmart was pulling the Miley Cyrus branded jewelry. USA Today says it really well in their headline Walmart pulls cadmium-tainted kids' jewelry it knowingly sold for months.  Check their entire blog post, they've covered the story from front to back.

Also a great headline by the AP: Wal-Mart still selling Miley Cyrus cadmium jewelery.
Testing of 61 samples purchased by AP reporters across the country from a Cyrus line and from a series of make-it-yourself metal bracelet charms indicated that 59 of the pieces contained at least 5 percent cadmium by weight, with 53 of those measuring 10 percent or higher.

Or from the Examiner: Is Walmart Trying to Kill Miley Cyrus Fans?

Walmart's Q1 Numbers: Sales, Earnings Up; Comps Down. [SN]

Target is seeing gains in Traffic and Profits.

And one more on Q1, BJ's Wholesale Club Profits Rise [WSJ]

Supermarket Alert: Stop and Shop is coming to Oceanside [LI Herald]
Plans to develop a 24-hour Super Stop & Shop on the former Camp DeBaun site in Oceanside are in the works, after Town of Hempstead officials approved a design for a project that some residents said would raise traffic and quality-of-life issues in their quiet neighborhood...."This particular Stop & Shop has been designed to blend in with the neighborhood ...," said Steven Krieger, a principal at Engel Burman. "It includes peaked roofs instead of the typical stucco, and looks more like a home. This is really a state-of-the-art store."

ABC filmed their show "What Would You Do?" at Key Food on Montague Street, Brooklyn.  The show aired Wednesday night... [Brooklyn Heights Blog]

Local 1500, along with other labor unions in the Greater NYC area, joined politicians, community activists and workers to support the new proposed Wage Theft Prevention Act. [Queens Chronicle]

Duane Reade, who opened a hit retail food store in Chelsea a few months back, revealed their "Fresh Food Strategy" to the Progressive Grocer, good read.  Q: We read about your Chelsea store debut in March with greatly expanded fresh food — what was the thinking behind it, and why do you think the concept will be a hit in a drug store?

Duane Reade (DR): Our goal for our fresh food program is to make it easy for New Yorkers to access tasty, quality fresh food such as bagged salads and select produce in a convenient and enjoyable way.

Price Chopper is offering a loyalty program in upstate NY.

Detroit's Push for more Green Grocers:
To help independent grocers expand on their fresh food offerings, Detroit Mayor David Bing unveiled a $1 million Green Grocer Project earlier this week.

Fresh Direct is expanding to Connecticut.


Good signs: NYC Unemployment drops four months straight [Crain's]


Thanks a bunch and enjoy your weekend, be sure to check out www.1union1voice.com for the 2010 contract updates!