Mid-Weed One Liners: Aldi is Coming to the Bronx, Queens and Long Island

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Aldi begins to make Footprints on NY 

Aldi is coming to Long Island, The Bronx and Queens according to a report from Newsday [subscription].

Aldi, coming to Pelham Gardens in the Bronx, as News 12 reports.

On Tuesday it was reported that King Kullen pulled reusable bags from the shelves due to lead concerns.  More @ CBS News.  Now they're saying their reusable bags have tested safe.
 
Fairway Market in Douglaston is set to open in Spring '11.

UFCW 21 has called in a Federal Mediator for their negotiations.
Whole Foods enters Walmart's territory, OKC.

Walmart lost a development fight in San Diego: City leaders voted to force big-box retailers that want to sell groceries to study how a store will affect the surrounding neighborhood before a building permit is considered.

Officials in a suburbanRochester town have rejected a local Walmart store's request to remain open through Thanksgiving night into the morning of Black Friday.

A union effort is underway to organize Price Chopper stores, some of whose hourly employees were represented by UFCW when they worked in the recently sold Penn Traffic stores.

In Pennsylvania, a Giant Eagle worker was arrested for talking "Union" in the store, and found not-guilty.

NY State Senator Savino (Staten Island) teamed up with our brothers and sisters in RWDSU 338 donating turkeys.

Related articles

• Supermarket Chain Pulls Reusable Bags Over Lead (newyork.cbslocal.com)

Friday Quick News: Victory Stella D'Oro Workers

Crain's New York: A bittersweet win for former Stella D'Oro workers
Workers who lost their jobs when Stella D'oro Biscuit Co. shuttered its Bronx plant last year could get millions in back pay and benefits as a result of a recent decision handed down by the National Labor Relations Board.

The ruling confirms that the 136 workers were driven to embark on a yearlong strike by the company, and orders Stella D'oro to fork over back pay, with interest, as well as benefits for the two-month period after the workers offered to return to the job in May 2009, and before the company took them back in July.


Huntington Patch: Wild By Nature's 10-Year Anniversary
Wild By Nature received a proclamation at Town Hall on Tuesday to commemorate its 10th anniversary in Huntington. The store, an independent subsidiary of the King Kullen Grocery Company, has three other locations on Long Island outside its Main Street location. UFCW represents all of the Wild By Nature stores.


Investors aren't impressed with Wal-Mart.


And NY State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli continues to warn New Yorkers that the State is running on empty.  He predicted the current spending rate will produce budget gaps of $15.6 billion by 2013-14 and a cumulative gap of $37 billion through 2013-14.  

Senator Gillibrand Announces National Effort to Bring Fresh Food and Good Jobs to NYC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  APRIL 12, 2010

FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS JOIN NATIONAL EFFORT TO BRING FRESH FOOD AND GOOD JOBS TO FOOD DESERT NEIGHBORHOODS

(NEW YORK, NY) – The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) proudly announces its support for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative legislation introduced today by New York legislators Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez (D-NY). 

The legislation will provide $1 billion through loans and grants to help build approximately 2,100 new grocery stores in high need areas across the country, including an estimated 273 stores in New York City. The initiative would create an estimated 200,000 new jobs nationally.

The Healthy Food Financing Initiative is a critical part of rejuvenating and revitalizing underserved neighborhoods both in terms of food quality and quality jobs that can support a family. 

New York-based UFCW Local 1500 is a leading partner in the New York FRESH Initiative which serves as a model for the national legislation and has successfully launched two major supermarkets into previously underserved areas in the Bronx.  Those supermarkets also added hundreds of new jobs and subsequent income to area residents.

Supermarkets act as anchors for economic development in a neighborhood.  In community after community, good supermarket jobs provide workers with good wages, career opportunities and most importantly, quality health care coverage that is key to a healthy lifestyle.   UFCW members in New York and across the U.S. take pride in serving their customers with good food.   This national legislation will provide needed funding to expand those opportunities into even more markets.

The UFCW applauds Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Velasquez for their vision in bringing worker organizations together with the economic development leaders and health policy advocates to ensure that new food outlets also provide good career jobs and training opportunities for new employees.

We believe that working together works.  With the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, we will:

·        Create new jobs from building new supermarkets in underserved neighborhoods;

·        Create new jobs from operating those stores; and

·        Create new jobs from related development which will grow up and around the new stores.

All the while, providing millions of residents with access to good, healthy, affordable food.

-30-

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, based out of Queens Village, represents over 23,000 grocery workers in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties and New Jersey. Members of Local 1500 are employed by Pathmark, King Kullen, Stop and Shop, Gristedes, Fairway, D’agastinos, Key Food and Shop Rite.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, with over 1 million in the retail food industry. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream.

For more information, contact Pat Purcell, UFCW Local 1500 at 973-583-9651 or Jill Cashen, UFCW, 202-728-4797 or email press@ufcw.org

UFCW News Service
www.ufcw.org

Friday Morning One Liners...Teixeria joins movement for Employee Free Choice, Local 7 updates...

 "Now more than ever, we need a strong union movement to protect our jobs, our pensions, and our future. The Employee Free Choice Act simply guarantees a level playing field for all workers. It makes sure everyone plays by the same rules. That’s as important in the workplace as it is in baseball."

-  In a joint statement from Jimmy Rollins, Mark Teixeira, and 13 other MLB Players.

UFCW members rally at Fred Myer after the company called the police on union representatives.

UFCW Local 7

Supermarket News: More than a week after contract negotiations broke down again, union grocery employees of Safeway here are demanding that the United Food and Commercial Workers sanction a strike. But it was still unclear Thursday whether an OK was forthcoming.

The Colorado Gazette has more.

The Fresh Market on opening it's first Connecticut store, and first New York store (Troy) "...[We] hope the opening is a sign of continued growth in the Northeast."

Aldi announced two new store openings in Florida.

Current and former Wal-Mart employees in Ohio and 29 other states can now apply for a share of an $85 million lawsuit...Read more about the judges approval of the $85 million lawsuit.

Powering the NYC Economy with Good Grocery Jobs...

Costco has announced they will accept food stamps nationwide. 

Politics, Health Care, Elsewhere....

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, on Thursday unveiled an $1.055 trillion health care package that would provide insurance to up to 36 million people by broadly expanding Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, and by offering subsidies to moderate-income Americans to buy insurance either from private carriers or a new government-run plan...The New York Times has more.

Newsday covers the Nassau County Executive debate between Suozzi and Mangano.

Living without heat in the Bronx, tenants put up signs outside of building asking for help.

More than 200 food vendors held a spirited noon rally on the steps of City Hall. They were protesting police harassment, a charge the NYPD denies.

New York's budget deficit continues to grow, this time $3.2B

And Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Mark Teixeira,  Heath Bell, Dave Bush, LaTroy Hawkins, Torii Hunter, John Lannan, Andrew Miller, J.J. Putz, Justin Verlander and Adam Wainwright have all added their names to the broad coalition to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Kingsbridge Armory update, Town Hall's filled with union members, Tuesday Read....

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UFCW and other union members are packing Obama's town halls as the Washington Post reports.

Kingsbridge Armory Supermarket:
Borough President Ruben Diaz has joined with the entire Bronx City Council delegation in opposing a new supermarket at the Kingsbridge Armory.

The Daily News picks up the story on the failures and foreclosures at Atlas Park, in Glendale, Queens.

The Wall Street Journal wonders what the Whole Foods boycott will do to the publicly traded company.

Supermarket News and the New York Times also ran stories regarding Mackey's comments.

The New York Times previews BJ's Wholesale Club's second quarter earnings, after J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock yesterday.

A problem-plagued $22.4 million scheme to transform a 222-acre former Bronx landfill into a spectacular PGA-regulation golf course has not only missed its deadline by eight years, it will now cost an additional $100 million, The NY Post reported.

Politics

Crain's says "the Bronx is burning" over failed real estate deals.

NYC gets stimulus for affordable housing. The NY Times has more.

The New York Times also looks at the economic health in Staten Island.

Former Bronx borough president is endorsing de Blasio.

Threat of Employee Free Choice downgrades stocks, Tuesdays One Liners...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Both houses of Congress could introduce versions of the Employee Free Choice Act as soon as today, according to reports yesterday.
Read more of this story

Wal-Mart was downgraded from 'buy' to 'hold' by Citi, why? Fear of the Employee Free Choice Act. [Reuters]

Bloomberg News runs down the major players supporting and opposing Employee Free Choice.

South Bronx: One bank per 20,000 residents.

The Fresh Market names a new executive.

Whole Foods will sell 13 stores to settle FTC case.

NYC nearing a launch of new supermarket development plan.

Wal-Mart's Sam's Club has a new CEO.

Nassau and Unions develop plans to save jobs.

Wal-Mart continues large eyebrow raising donations that stir up rumors in Chicago.

Politics

Jack Cafferty: "The GOP is becoming a cartoon"

The Gotham Gazette grades NYC Council members.

Ruben Diaz Jr. launched his campaign for Bronx borough president yesterday with an event at Borough Hall.

Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson supports the millionaire tax.

Do you pay the same tax rate as Donald Trump?

Local 1500 joins in fight to monitor labor laws...

Image via CrunchBaseStreet-Level Groups Enlisted to Report Labor Violations

By SEWELL CHAN and COLIN MOYNIHAN

To crack down on businesses that pay less than the minimum wage, fail to pay overtime or to pay wages altogether, steal tips or commit other labor violations, the New York State Department of Labor is starting an experimental program that will rely on community organizations to monitor compliance with labor laws.

In an announcement, the state labor commissioner, M. Patricia Smith, called the program, the New York Wage Watch, a “one-of-a-kind grassroots tool in the fight against illegal labor practices.”

The six-month pilot will begin with six participants: the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, which will focus on Chinatown, Flushing and parts of Long Island; Make the Road New York, which will focus on Bushwick; the Workplace Project, based on Long Island; the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which will look at high-end supermarkets; the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which will focus on retail stores in Lower Manhattan, Bushwick, the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and parts of Queens; and the Centro del Inmigrante, based on Staten Island.

The six groups will conduct know-your-rights training, providing employers with information about compliance and distributing brochures to workers in supermarkets, laundromats, nail salons, day-labor sites and other work areas. They will have a designated contact in the Labor Department’s Division of Labor Standards, which enforces wage and hour laws, to whom they can refer violations or questions.

The department is to provide training and materials to the groups starting on Feb. 7.

After the first experiment in New York City and on Long Island, the Labor Department will seek additional groups for the program. The groups must be nongovernmental and nonprofit, and can include religious organizations, student groups, labor unions, business associations or neighborhood groups.

Ms. Smith said the program was loosely based on the Neighborhood Watch programs that began in Queens in the 1960s. In December 2007, she said, the Labor Department investigated a commercial strip in Bushwick. Two of the six groups now taking part in the pilot project — Make the Road New York and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union — maintained a presence in the Bushwick area, staying in touch with workers and employers, and the number of labor-law violations went down, Ms. Smith said.

The Labor Department has documented numerous labor-law violations at a variety of workplaces in recent years, from restaurants and car washes to sites like the Saratoga Race Course and the Erie County Fair.

Amy Carroll, a supervising lawyer at Make the Road New York, said, “The Department of Labor can’t be in every nook and cranny of the city and the state all the time. We want employers to know there are costs for violating the law. They can’t get away with it.”

"Wal-Mart Responsible for Death"- Police, Re-Zoning the hotel Pennsylvania, Wal-Mart sales up still...

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The police in Nassau County, New York released a report this week that clearly lays the blame for a Black Friday trampling death on Wal-Mart.

Grocer Stew Leonard's Inc. is suing Dairy Farmers of America Inc., accusing the dairy marketing association of buying large amounts of cheese to distort the market in an attempt to manipulate and raise the price of raw milk and processed dairy products.

Bob Gillick, store director at the ShopRite on Tuckahoe Road, doesn't see hiring mentally disabled residents as an option - he sees it as a necessity.

Vornado wants to re-zone the Hotel Pennsylvania.

The Coney Island Coalition has created some harsh flyers about developer Joe Sitt.

Here's more on Wal-Mart's continued efforts to stop the organizing of stores in Canada.

Stop & Shop, Giant Food Launch "Major Consumer Wellness Initiative"

Food-retailing stocks in general fared better than the market overall in 2008, although more than half of the North American supermarket and wholesaler issues tracked by SN had double-digit percentage declines during the year.
Read more of this story

Whole Foods Market has pulled out of a plan to build a new store as part of a mixed-use project in downtown Miami, reports said last week.
Read more of this story

Politics

An incoming State Senator from the Bronx is facing near-record fines for violating city campaign finance laws.

Bill Clinton is rumored to take Hillary's seat.

Special election to fill Mike McMahon's vacant seat is on Feb. 24,

Here's more on all the special elections.

Fresh Direct Promotes Healthy Eating in the Office, NYC Food Bank gets a huge grant, more One-Liners...

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Police in Connecticut have arrested three men and charged them with stealing about $5,000 from area supermarkets by turning in fake receipts from coin-counting machines, a published report said Wednesday.
Read more of this story

A transit rider in protest of the rising fares and cut of service, attempted to throw his shoe at the MTA board of directors yesterday at an open panel.

The MTA OK'd the hike.

Fresh Direct launched a program "Smart Eating at the Office" The program will bring chefs and nutritionists to your office for a lunch time seminar on healthy foods.

A Portland, Ore., chain of grocery stores has lost a legal bid to keep its confidential business information out of the hands of lawyers for competitor Whole Foods Markets Inc. (WFMI), which says it needs the information to defend itself in a high-stakes battle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Wegman's applauded Patterson's plan to sell wine in grocery stores.

BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. has elected Picis president and c.e.o. Christine Cournoyer, to its board of directors. The Wakefield, Mass.-based company is a worldwide provider of software solutions for automating resource-intensive hospital documentation and business practices

The NYC Food Bank receives their biggest grant since 9/11.

Wal-Mart Stores here has reportedly launched a new grocery format in Puerto Rico called Super Ahorros, a discount format similar to the Bodega Express chain the company operates in Mexico and to other similar formats it operates across Central and South America.
Read more of this story


The legal outcomes of a fatal nightclub fire in Rhode Island and a deadly stampede at a Bronx concert could serve as model cases for Nassau County prosecutors in their criminal investigation of the Wal-Mart stampede in Valley Stream, legal observers say...

Op-Ed: "Wal-Mart could have prevented death."

Still on the rise:
A leading consumer research firm raised its holiday retail sales outlook on Wednesday, due to what it called Wal-Mart's "domination" of the retail industry with its bargain-basement deals.

President-elect Barack Obama named Tom Vilsack the next U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary yesterday.
Read more of this story

Politics

Peter King said "Caroline Kennedy is not qualified."

The Mayor's top aide says Caroline Kennedy will be the next Senator.

If she isn't appointed she'll run in '10

Short Liners...

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Activist investor Bill Ackman is urging Target to move to a sale-leaseback model, in which Target would sell its real estate holdings to a subsidiary that would then lease the stores back to Target.

Target currently has stores in Brooklyn and the Bronx and will open its first Manhattan store next year.

Two new grocery stores to open in Downtown Brooklyn.

More on the re-vamped Gristedes.