Friday Morning One-Liners: Wal-Mart OK's Meeting with Chicago's Labor

Wal-Mart has OK'd a meeting to sit down with labor (UFCW, Chicago Federation of Labor)  to push for more Chicago expansion.[Chicago Sun-Times] 

Ramirez noted that Wal-Mart has been bombarding the airwaves with commercials in recent days boasting about how well its employees are treated.
"If they do all this great stuff, sit down and put it in writing. You haven't exactly lived up to the letter of the law in other places," Ramirez said.
"They've got the largest class-action lawsuit in American history for systematically paying women less than they pay men for doing the exact same thing. The [alarm] bells should be going off at City Hall saying, 'We don't want to bring in predatory employers.' I don't hear a commercial saying that."

New York
Crain's Poll: "Would you Shop at a NYC Walmart?" Check out what other New Yorkers are saying.

WSJ Blog: NYC Wal-Mart, Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg Disagree.

CNN: Wal-Mart's Bad PR Comes at a Bad Time...

King Kullen donates $100,000 of Groceries to Island Harvest (Long Island).

UFCW President Joe Hansen released a statement denouncing Arizona’s controversial new immigration law: "Arizona's new immigration law is unworkable, unconstitutional and it undermines our nation's rich immigrant history and heritage. It is a recipe for racial profiling and a marked retreat from the values and ideals that have made America strong."

Kroger: Wal-Mart's  aggressive new price campaign has it behaving more like a promotional supermarket and less like an everyday discounter, at least according to the estimation of one competitor. [Supermarket News]

Kelly Ripa has been recruited as the spokesperson for A&P's "Price Project", the company's new pricing program.

Greenpeace has released their annual Supermarket Seafood Sustainability chart [pdf], Target and Wegmans came in at 1 and 2, while A&P rated at 7... Supermarket News has more.

UFCW Local 1: Cooperstown Great American Gobbled Up by Golub
Neil Golub is at it again.  He may be destroying more good jobs, this time in Cooperstown NY.  The Golub Corporation has purchased the Great American store in Cooperstown NY, the birth of baseball.  This may be a strike out for Great American employees.  Will Neil Golub offer the 50 employees at Great American a position with his store after he takes over in three weeks?  If history repeats itself the answer is, no....

Pat Purcell, Assistant to the President, UFCW Local 1500, joined the Neil Cavuto Show to discuss Wal-Mart in NYC, Wednesday.  Check out the video.

Thousands of workers and union members angry over lost jobs and the taxpayer-funded bailout of banks marched on Wall Street Thursday. [Crain's NY]

Tuesday Morning One Liners...

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Spartan Stores, a grocery supplier to independent grocers and operator of 99 retail stores throughout Michigan, offering GM workers and UAW workers who lost their jobs discounts on gasoline and groceries.

Rite-Aid workers and union supporters will rally in Times Square on Thursday before a shareholders meeting...workers in Lancaster have been struggling over one year to negotiate their first union contract.

A national Ad group has told Wal-Mart Stores yesterday that it should stop running TV ads claiming customers can save $700 a year by shopping its stores. This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been told to stop making claims like these in advertisements.

Wal-Mart has also named a new diversity officer.

Wal-Mart is also having yet another 'sales tax mishap', overcharging customers, this time in Missouri. If you remember this was previously an issue in Connecticut.

Lee Scott, the former chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, called on attendees at the CIES World Food Business Summit here on Friday to join the Global Social Compliance Program to help ensure that suppliers are adhering to local wage and environmental regulations.

A&P store in Midland Park, N.J. next Saturday morning will have a Jonas Brothers day.

Price Chopper has announced they will analyze their labor costs.

Hyde Park Stop & Shop update: voting waits on traffic light location.

Another study has confirmed, lack of nearby supermarkets takes years off life.

As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, adding a supermarket to a neighborhood could, collectively, mean a gain of up to 15 years of life for those suffering from diabetes; 13 years for those with liver disease; 58 years for people with diet-related cancers; and 112 years for people with cardiovascular disease.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unveiled an agreement with the Bloomberg administration last Thursday on a trifecta of measures geared toward making it easier for small businesses in the city to launch and prosper.

The city of Philadelphia has rejected a measure that would ban plastic bags.

USA Today: For immigrants, living the dream is getting tougher.