Tuesday's One Liners, Tomorrow's General Membership Meeting, Next Week's Walmart Rally

Reminder tomorrow is our General Membership Meeting and Annual Toy Drive @ The Inn at New Hyde Park: More information at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UFCWLocal1500?v=app_2344061033#!/event.php?eid=116408735089069&index=1


UFCW Local 1189 has kicked off their contract campaign in Minnesota.

Queens Courier tells food retailers in Queens that there is funding available to build grocery stores.

Global retail giant Wal-Mart has targeted low-income and rural customers in China with the opening of a no-frills compact hypermarket in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

Walmart could also potentially house Wine Kiosks. 

Walmart is in a battle with San Diego, last week San Diego City Council overtuned a Mayoral veto which prohibited Supercenters from opening in the city without conducting a survey.

Opening a supercenter in the city of San Diego became much more difficult — some suggest impossible — after the City Council on Thursday overturned Mayor Jerry Sanders’ veto of an ordinance that requires retailers to conduct a study of how the stores will affect the surrounding neighborhood before moving in.

This week, Walmart has been fighting back, they've formed a campaign committee and they're gathering signatures to sign a petition to allow them to open a store.

On Tuesday, December 14th, the NYC Council will be debating the affects Walmart will have on businesses and communities throughout the five boroughs.  We're holding a rally prior to the hearing at 9:30 AM, to tell the City Council that we need Union Jobs, not irresponsible employers in the greatest city in the world.  For more information on the rally check the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112443372158284&index=1

A closed Shaw's will open as a Save-A-Lot in Connecticut.

Local 1500's December General Membership is tomorrow, December 8, at 7:30 at the Inn at New Hyde Park.  FB Link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112443372158284&index=1#!/event.php?eid=116408735089069

Yucaipa and A&P, Queens gets a Fairway, Friday Morning One Liners...

Image by jorgeq via Flickr

Good Morning on a Friday!

Yucaipa & A&P

A&P welcomes Yucaipa investments after a 'Challenging Q1'.

Supermarket News covered the story also: Investors approved of the deal, sending A&P stock up by more than 14% Thursday. The addition of Yucaipa also drew praise from Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which lauded Yucaipa’s history with labor unions, including Local 1500’s previous experience with Pathmark under Burkle

Queens gets a Fairway
Queens Chronicle Fairway will open a store in Douglaston, Queens within 4 months.

Long Island Press: Another Fairway for Queens and Long Island.

Another unjust firing.
In February Kadar Yusuf Haji Ali, a worker at the Jennie-O Turkey Store in Faribault, sat down for a cup of coffee with an organizer from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. He wanted to discuss the possibility of unionizing the plant. Roughly a week later the Somali immigrant was fired from the slaughterhouse. Read more here.

Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., has agreed to pay up to $35 million to settle a class-action lawsuit here alleging the retailer forced workers to skip breaks and work off the clock, the Associated Press reported.

Trader Joe's will open another store in Jersey by the end of August.


Politics
Another article on NY Labor Leaders and David Patterson.

McCarthy: Back surgery deterred me from Senate race
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy said Thursday she's planning to undergo back surgery next week - and that the lengthy recovery period was the "real reason" she decided not to run for the U.S. Senate. Last month, McCarthy, 65, the Democrat from Mineola, said she wouldn't challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next year's party primary for "personal reasons." Thursday, she said her impending back surgery, which will require her to wear a brace for six to eight months, drove her decision to bow out of consideration for the Senate. Her aching back has forced her in recent weeks to rely on a cane.

44 Charged by U.S. in New Jersey Corruption Sweep
A two-year corruption and international money-laundering investigation stretching from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn to Israel and Switzerland culminated in charges against 44 people on Thursday, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen and five rabbis, the authorities said. The case began with bank fraud charges against a member of an insular Syrian Jewish enclave centered in a seaside town. But when that man became a federal informant and posed as a crooked real estate developer offering cash bribes to obtain government approvals, it mushroomed into a political scandal that could rival any of the most explosive and sleazy episodes in New Jersey's recent past.

Wage violations in NYC Supermarkets, Wal-Mart finally unionizes in Canada (again), Buying Sustainable fish at your grocery store...

mage via Wikipedia
370 underpaid New York City grocery workers will be paid $750K. The owner of the three stores in violation Long Deng, owns stores throughout the metropolitan area. The three supermarkets that were cited for wage violations are:

1. New York Supermarket East Broadway at 73 East Broadway in Manhattan
2. New York Supermarket of Flushing at 43-53 Main Street in Flushing, Queens
   
3. New York Supermarket at 86-22 Broadway in Elmhurst, Queens

Read more at New York Times City Room.

After more than four years of legal wrangling, the Wal-Mart store in Weyburn, Sask., has been officially unionized.

Online grocer FreshDirect has introduced a Daily Produce Rating System, which it said gives shoppers "a foolproof way to ensure that the ripest fruits and crunchiest veggies are consistently delivered to their doorsteps."

The Boston Globe reports supermarket's top retailers with "sustainable fish" (Stop & Shop ranked 2, A&P 11)

Wegman's announced it will switch to 'high efficiency lighting'

Listen to Pat Purcell, Director of Special Projects on WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report.

Patterson told LIPA to go back to the drawing board on their proposed increases.

Bill Thompson reassured voters he is running for Mayor.