Local 1360 talks resume with Acme, Monday Morning One Liners...

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Here's a first Grocery chains King Soopers and Safeway offered signing bonuses consisting of gift cards worth up to $1,000 to union workers in Colorado and Wyoming as part of contract proposals.


Local 1360 talks with Acme will resume today, after hitting a stand-still on Friday.

Penn Traffic Co. has sent letters to employees of P&C supermarkets warning of possible store closures. The earliest that could happen is Sunday, Feb. 15, 2010.
 
Wegmans Food Markets next month will open a stand-alone restaurant called the “Next Door Bar & Grill” across the street from its store on Monroe Avenue here, according to a report in the Brighton-Pittsford Post. 

Nearly two dozen eateries throughout Park Slope (Brooklyn), were found underpaying workers in the NY Department of Labor's random sweep of 23 restaurants throughout the area.  In some cases workers were making $2.75 an hour.

Marlene Lang of the Southtown Star thinks Wal-Mart got off easy in 'Black Friday death'.

Sources say Guiliani will seek a US Senate seat (Gillibrand), and if elected a white house run in 2012.

Another suit was filed last week to block the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn.

Democrats step up push for votes on Health Care.

New York City shed 15,600 jobs in October—including 12,800 private sector positions across a swath of industries—the worst one-month loss since December 2008, according to an analysis of state Department of Labor data.

UFCW Local 7, Colorado Contract Updates,

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UFCW Local 7's contract negotiations have been an enormous struggle, going on for several months now, here's the latest news today...Also be sure to support your fellow brothers and sisters in Colorado by heading to their Facebook page and pledging your solidarity!


King Soopers told its unionized employees Thursday it will likely lock them out should grocery workers represented by the same union strike Safeway stores.

More and more reports of a strike looming in Colorado.


Behind the latest breakdown in talks between workers and Safeway.

Paid Sick Days in NYC, Friday Morning One Liners..

Guillermo Barrera, plans to tell hundreds at a downtown rally on Thursday how he lost his job at a Brooklyn restaurant when he told his boss he needed to go to the hospital.

"She told me I was fired and she never wanted to see me again and I should never return," Barrera, 36, told the Daily News.


Barrera, 36, who worked as a cook at Tina's Place on Flushing Ave. in Bushwick, will be marching across the Brooklyn Bridge today to champion city legislation mandating employers provide workers with paid sick leave.
Read More in the Daily News.

Hundreds of members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 152  voted yesterday on a new four-year contract with Acme supermarkets.

UFCW Local 8 began to picket Fresh & Easy locations throughout California. Supermarket News has more.

Rockaways get a supermarket they've dreamed of, a new Stop & Shop will begin development by winter of this year.

UFCW Unveiled a study that showed Ohio spends roughly $68.5 million a year providing Wal-Mart employees with Medicaid, food stamps and 'welfare'.  You can read the entire report in PDF here.


Must Read: Washington Post: What Makes a Health Plan a 'Cadillac'?


The Villager writes on the possibilities of a 6th Avenue Trader Joe's.

A new report concludes that the NYS Liquor Authority is "fundamentally broken".

Marching for Paid Sick Days in NYC.  The Daily News has more on Paid Sick Days gaining momentum.

Forbes.com asks if Grocery stocks will continue to rise.

UFCW Local 7 Contract update: King Soopers workers will vote on a contract today, while Safeway workers have already voted down their latest contract proposal.

A San Fransisco mayoral candidate writes an open letter to John Mackey of Whole Foods, as they plan to open a new store in the San Fran area, quick excerpt from the letter:

Also, our Board of Supervisors has taken a stand in support of the Employee Free Choice Act pending in Congress.


In Noe Valley, these are important issues given the closure of Real Food for over six years because of an illegal attempt to deny employees the right to union representation.

I believe these issues speak to our values and concerns and I would hope that you might consider alternative views as you seek to expand your work in our great City.

Read the entire letter here at the San Francisco Gate.

NYC has new Health Plan, Philly gets four new supermarkets, Obama speaks at AFL-CIO convention, Wednesday Morning Read

“When labor succeeds—that’s when our middle class succeeds. And when our middle class succeeds—that’s when the United States of America succeeds.”
-President Barack Obama speaking at the 2009 AFL-CIO annual convention.

ShopRite, voted one of the best supermarkets in the nation.

New York City sets a new ambitious health plan, targeting smoking, sugary soda's and sports drinks and promoting more exercise... Including a possible ban on smoking in public parks?

Tariffs on Tires: President Obama took decisive action on Monday to provide relief to the domestic consumer tire industry in response to surging exports of tires from China. His actions will bring relief to many workers and their families and reverse course after eight years of neglect of trade laws by the Bush administration.

Steven Greenhouse of the NY Times has more: Tire Tariffs are Cheered by Union.

King Soopers and Safeway workers could go on strike as early as Oct. 6 if the grocery chains do not increase pension and wage offers in contract negotiations that have dragged on for over five months, union officials said Tuesday.

Supermarket News reports that workers will begin voting on Saturday on their "Final Contract Offer"

Meanwhile, UFCW Local 99 [Arizona] will resume negotiations with Safeway, Fry's & Smith's this week. 

The state of Pennsylvania may be supporting the development of four new supermarkets in under-served areas in Philadelphia.

A bill introduced in California would stop the sales of alcohol in self checkout lanes.  The Ventura County Star has a more detailed story.




Politics/Primary

Here is a complete list of results from yesterday's Primary.


Public Advocate: Mark Green and Bill De Blasio will have a runoff vote on September 29th.

Council Member Kendall Stewart is upset by rising star, community activist Jumanne Williams.

Rick Lazio, the former Long Island congressman who ran against Hillary Rodham Clinton for the US Senate in 2000, will formally declare he's a candidate for governor -- potentially putting him on a primary collision course with Rudy Giuliani.

Local 789 Pickets Trader Joe's, Fresh Direct launches seafood evaluation, Downtown restaurant underpays employees, UFCW contract negotiation updates

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1,500 rally in Arkansas for Employee Free Choice.

Fresh Direct is launching a seafood evaluation system.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says a popular Thai restaurant in Manhattan's financial district underpaid employees by hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some working up 72 hours a week for less than minimum wage.

Acme Markets and its 4,000-member union were back at the negotiating table Monday, three days after Acme backed down from terminating its current contract and implementing portions of its last offer.

A new round of negotiations begins today between Safeway and the UFCW Local 7, while talks with King Soopers and Albertsons remain at a standstill.

The National Retail Federation, the industry's largest trade group, is urging its members to publicly challenge Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s support for proposals to require companies to help pay for health insurance.

Supervalu gave “false and misleading” financial guidance that helped retailer raise $1 billion through the debt market before a downward revision sent its stock reeling, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed here Monday.

UFCW Local 789 is picketing outside a Trader Joe's in St.Paul Minnesota.

A federal judge has given final approval to a $17.5 million settlement of a discrimination lawsuit that accused Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of not hiring black truck drivers.

Development
King Kullen: Hampton Bays Moratorium extended another six-months.

The Hyde Park Stop & Shop hearing continues Wednesday.

Politics

In a meeting with President Obama today at the White House, top labor leaders pushed for a second stimulus package to create more jobs.

Local 1500 to Bloomberg: Fix up your supermarket plan, King Soopers members reject contract proposal, Thursday One-Liners...

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End of a retailing era, Virgin Megastore shuts its doors in NYC.

Local 1500 tells Mayor Bloomberg to beef up his supermarket plan.

A Food Basics store will open at the site of a former A&P in Fairview, N.J., next week.

A&P is also debuting a new private label for kids.

Why Wal-Mart needs the Employee Free Choice Act.

UFCW Local 1776 members at Acme supermarkets will vote on a contract next week.

Overhill Farms, a major food-processing plant in the L.A. area, terminated more than 200 employees after an IRS audit finds that they had provided 'invalid or fraudulent' Social Security numbers, UFCW 770 calls it a 'desktop raid'.

Here's more on the firings of 254 employees.

UFCW 7 members at King Soopers have rejected the contract offer...On the contract offer:

Roxanne Heeney, a pharmacy technician at the King Soopers store at 6030 Stetson Hills Blvd. and an employee for more than 20 years, said the offer "really bums me out, that they are trying to decrease our benefits and not give us any wage increase. I can't make ends meet now. I want to avoid a strike, but if we have to strike, we will. I would like to see something that would help us maintain our retirement fund so we won't have to work until we're 95."

King Soopers in Colorado, has also filed a suit accusing union representatives of disrupting business and intimidating workers by sending groups of union representatives into stores to talk to workers.

They're set to meet today in court, as King Soopers tries to block the UFCW representatives from speaking to their members on the sales floor.

The Progressive Grocer has an indepth story on King Soopers allegations of "Union Hooliganism"

They're also reporting 'Fresh & Easy' to open four stores in July.

The UFT replaces Randy Weingarten.

A horrific accident took the lives of three workers and injured 41 others in an explosion and roof collapse at the ConAgra Foods Inc. facility in Garner, North Carolina, on June 9, 2009. The (UFCW) Local 204 represents 900 workers in that facility.

Politics

Howard Dean has endorsed both Brad Lander and Josh Skaller, only problem, they're running against each other.

Another poll confirms Patterson's unpopularity.

Senator Monnserratte is now turning to back the Dems.

NYSUT endorses Gillibrand.

The Food Safety Bill continues to advance in the house.

As the Senate reels, Espada says he gets 2 votes

Sen. Pedro Espada, the dissident Bronx Democrat in charge of the deadlocked Senate, is insisting that he can count himself twice to get a quorum to start passing bills. At the same time, he is contending that an investigation into his finances by prosecutors is payback for cozying with Republicans to take over the Senate. Meanwhile, allegations were flying that former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith of Queens directed state money to a school attended by, in Espada's words, Smith's "out-of-wedlock child."

Gourmet Garage will open in about a month, New Farmers Market on Long Island, UFCW Local 7 Contract updates...

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Workers in King Soopers, Denver voted on the company's latest contract proposal on Tuesday, in a letter to members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, union President Ernest Duran said King Soopers’ proposal “slashes pensions, fails to preserve health care benefits, maintains the unfair two-tier system and penalizes the corporation’s workers.”

A Farmers / Flea Market will be opening every Saturday at SUNY Old Westbury on Long Island.

Woodhaven Lanes, well what was formerly Woodhaven Lanes, may soon turn into retail space in Glendale Queens.

The New York Times looks at how the recession has hit Jamaica Queens.

Smith’s Food & Drug yesterday came to a tentative agreement on a new contract with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1564 of Albuquerque, N.M
Supermarket News has more.

Albertsons will close another store in Florida.

Gourmet Garage will open up at the former Balducci's in "about a month"

UFCW 1776 has until today to vote on Acme Markets' "last, best and final contract offer"

Politics

A New York Times/Cornell/NY1 poll shows seven in ten New Yorkers don’t want to elect David Paterson as governor in 2010.

Carolyn Maloney is persistent on running against Kristin Gillibrand.