In Wake of A&P Bankruptcy, Local 1500 Helps Pass Grocery Workers Retention Act in NYC

New legislation will provide a 90-day job protection for grocery workers who face unemployment through no fault of their own.

Yesterday,  Local 1500 joined elected officials, labor and community leaders, and workers as Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the Grocery Workers Retention Act (GWRA) at City Hall.

The GWRA (Int 632-2015) provides for a ninety-day transition period to eligible employees following a change in ownership of a grocery store.

The transition period is a temporary protection for employees who may face unemployment through no fault of their own. The grocery industry makes up a significant portion of New York City’s retail workforce with over 50,000 employees and roughly two-thirds of this workforce coming from immigrant labor.

As we know first hand, our industry suffers from a volatile condition with the eminent merger, closing or the establishment of new ownership of our supermarkets jeopardizing the future of workers and the quality of life of countless communities. The recent A&P bankruptcy has provided a vivid example of this, affecting over 30,000 men and women throughout the northeast. 52 stores were impacted throughout the five boroughs including subsidiary brands such as Pathmark, Waldbaum’s, Food Emporium, and Food Basics. Some stores have been closed, others sold or auctioned, or even transformed into non-supermarket entities.

 Council Member I. Daneek Miller (who proposed the GWRA) noted the importance of the act for both workers and communities in New York City, “Through this legislation we are able to provide communities with stability that would otherwise not exist during grocery transitions. We have already seen the terrible impact that A&P’s bankruptcy had on families throughout the City, and we don’t want to see such again. High worker retention rates are consistently associated with higher customer satisfaction. Experienced employees provide better service – they can find items more quickly, check out customers more efficiently, and provide culturally competent service,” said Council Member Miller.

Retention also keeps operating costs down, passing savings to communities. Turnover, from new training to lost productivity, costs the supermarket industry as a whole close to $5 billion a year. "All too often when supermarkets change ownership, workers' job security is uncertain at best," said Bruce Both, President of UFCW Local 1500, New York State's largest supermarket Union. "It is not fair to these working men and women or their communities, where union wages serve as economic anchors. I commend Councilman I. Daneek Miller, the Progressive Caucus and the entire New York City Council for passing legislation to end this injustice and provide grocery workers in the City of New York with a 90-day window to showcase their skills and stabilize the transition for the community."

The GWRA applies to grocery stores (or retailers with grocery departments) 10,000 square feet or larger excluding areas for storage, loading, food preparation, or eating. For perspective, this size is larger than three professional tennis courts combined and could serve to park roughly 100 midsized sedans. The legislation’s provisions apply only to workers who have worked a minimum average of eight hours a week and have been employed at the establishment for the previous six months.

Support 250 Fired UPS Drivers

Tomorrow our Public Advocate Letitia James is holding a press conference to support and demand 250 UPS Drivers who are fired be re-instated.  If you're in the City Hall area, stop by and show your support to our Teamster brothers and sisters!

Public Advocate Letitia James and Teamsters Protest UPS Decision to Lay Off 250 New Yorkers

James Calls for City to Reconsider Parking Ticket Deal That Saves UPS Millions

(New York, NY)— Delivery giant United Parcel Service (UPS) is in the process of terminating 250 of their New York employees from their Maspeth, Queens facility.

UPS— who fired the employees after they walked off the job for 90 minutes in February to protest the dismissal of a long-time employee— currently benefit from a $43 million public contract in which the company provides delivery services to city and state agencies. The company also participates in a program in which it receives millions of dollars every year in reduced fine and fees for parking tickets.

Public Advocate Letitia James is demanding that UPS rehire these drivers, and that the City of New York reconsider these public deals with UPS until such a time that the company makes a good-faith effort to negotiate with employees.

 

WHAT:               Press conference calling on UPS to rehire 250 drivers

WHO:                 Public Advocate Letitia James, Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda, Teamsters Local 804 President Tim Sylvester, Dozens of Laid Off UPS Drivers

WHEN:               Thursday, April 3^rd 2014

                             10:00 AM  

 

WHERE:             City Hall steps

Event Update: December 14th Wal-Mart Rally Canceled

The Rally has been canceled due to the New York City Council postponing their Wal-Mart debate...We will be posting updates and more information shortly. Please join the Wal-Mart Free NYC coalition on FB here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wal-Mart-Free-NYC/151784818201968?ref=sgm

Prayer Vigil for Food Justice

Image via Wikipedia

Inter-Faith Leaders to Join Forces with United Food and Commercial Workers 1500 to Call on Elected Officials to End Child Hunger and Support a Just and

What: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist faith leaders will join representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500, We Act for Environmental Justice, The Majora Carter Group, and the NYC Coalition Against Hunger on the steps of City Hall to demand changes to food policy at the city and federal level.

When: Thursday, June 18th 9am

Who: Lisa Sharon Harper, New York Faith & Justice

Charles Calloway, We Act for Environmental Justice
Allen Strouse, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500
Alexandra Yannias, Interfaith Voices Against Hunger/Feed the Solution
James Subudhi, We ACT for Environmental Justice
Tanya Fields, The Majora Group
Rabbi Jeremy Kalmonofsky, Ansche Chesed
Anindita Chatterjee Bhaumik, Faith Connect
Jaspreet Singh, United Sikhs
Nurah Amatullah, Muslim Women’s Institute for Research and Development

Where: New York City Hall, Manhattan

Visuals: Faith leaders and non-profit leaders joining hands on City Hall steps.

Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice, co-chaired by Lisa Sharon Harper (New York Faith & Justice) and Charles Calloway (We ACT for Environmental Justice), is a diverse collaboration between faith leaders committed to making deep impact on issues of environmental justice in New York City through coordinated collective action on issues such as food justice, climate justice, and energy conservation.


United Food and Commercial Workers Join Forces with Inter-Faith Leaders to Call for a Just and Sustainable Food System for NYC

Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist faith leaders locked hands with representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500, We Act for Environmental Justice, and the NYC Coalition Against Hunger on the steps of City Hall to demand changes to food policy at the city and federal level. Their “demands” were in the form of prayers and policy recommendations.

On the City level, faith leaders urged Mayor Bloomberg to include food policy in PlaNYC, an omission that disproportionately affects low-income and minority residents who are more likely to be unable to afford and access healthy food in their communities.

On the federal level, faith leaders called on Congressional leaders to support a strong Reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which Congress will consider this year.

Lisa Sharon Harper, co-chair of Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice, the vigil’s sponsor, explained, “Low income black and brown families are sitting in the back of the bus when it comes to food in New York City. They pay up to twice as much for less nutritional value and they are twice as likely to suffer from diabetes as higher income New Yorkers.”

“As faith leaders,” Harper said, “we have a moral mandate to speak up when the very lives of the vulnerable are threatened by the systems that govern us.”

Said Alexandra Yannias, coordinator of Interfaith Voices Against Hunger/Feed the Solution, an initiative of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, and facilitator of the Faith Leaders’ food justice working group: “As more children suffer from hunger, obesity, and diabetes in our communities, we must improve federal legislation for child nutrition to create a healthier generation. We call on Congress to support a strong Reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act by increasing the per meal reimbursement for school meals to allow the programs to purchase healthier foods and by making the programs universal in low-income neighborhoods.”

Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice, co-chaired by Harper and Charles Calloway of We ACT for Environmental Justice, is a diverse collaboration between faith leaders committed to making deep impact on issues of environmental justice in New York City through coordinated collective action on issues such as food justice, climate justice, and energy conservation.

At the group’s May 2009 breakfast gathering representatives from the Office of Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, and the Department of Health highlighted some promising policy recommendations one of which was the creation of a “food shed” for the city.

A food shed would create a 200-mile zone around New York City that could provide more fresh produce at a cheaper rate by taking advantage of local farms and distributors. Though the city would not expect to obtain 100 percent of its food from the food shed, it would seek to provide as much food as possible from the food shed to streamline the city’s food system.

Policy decisions must integrate a just and sustainable food system into the political structure of New York City. Currently, fast food restaurants are subsidized by the city to locate at 125th street or above. Meanwhile, supermarkets are closing in that area and pharmacies are opening in their place to meet the high demands for diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease medication.

“The city’s FRESH program offers economic incentives for healthy supermarkets to locate in currently underserved areas,” said Harper. “Incentives are what we need but they must come in tandem with standards developed by the people of the community.”

“Job standards are especially important, since underserved areas have the highest rates of poverty and unemployment,” added Allen Strouse, Food Policy Associate for United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500. “Incentives need to guarantee that employers provide good jobs so that programs like FRESH truly benefit working-class New Yorkers. We need supermarkets that bring good food, good jobs, and good
health.”

UFCW, which serves the interests of 22,000 members, will participate in the vigil.

The day of justice continued that evening at New York Faith and Justice’s event, An Offering of Letters for Food Justice. Hosted by St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at 521 W. 126th St at 7 pm, participants shared stories of food injustice and its effects in our city and our schools. They wrote letters to Mayor Bloomberg and congressional representatives calling for food to be adopted as part of PlanNYC and for the passage of the Child Reauthorization Act.

Said Yannias, “We cannot continue to stand-by as low-income communities in New York City suffer from hunger and diet-related diseases. We must take action now by calling on our representatives on the federal and city levels to improve how we feed our children and our communities.”

Lisa Sharon Harper, who is also executive director of New York Faith & Justice, reflected, “For those who have much, food seems like an insignificant side issue. For those who have little, food is the difference between life and death, health and debt.”

“We must redistribute the health in New York City,” Harper added, “and we must do it now.”


Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice is guided by the cooperative leadership of New York Faith & Justice, We Act for Environmental Justice, the Interfaith Center of New York, New York Theological Seminary, Hazon, Interfaith Voices Against Hunger, NY Divinity School, Riverside Church of New York City, and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.