Last Two Week's Media Coverage:

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  Newsday: Supermarket union gives leaders power to call strike

  Supermarket union members at Stop & Shop and King Kullen Wednesday gave their leaders the power to call a strike as the expiration of their contract nears on Saturday. Officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 have been in negotiations with those stores and Pathmark since...
  
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  People's World: Supermarket Workers Fight to Bag a Fair Deal

  NEW YORK - With the clock ticking towards a June 26 contract deadline, thousands of unionized supermarket workers are negotiating in an attempt to avoid a strike, but their employers at Stop and Shop, King Kullen and Pathmark are refusing to budge. Their union, United Food and Commercial...
  
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  Workers Independent News: UFCW Could Strike 150 Supermarkets In Southern New York State

  UFCW Could Strike 150 Supermarkets In Southern New York State Southern New York State could be facing a grocery workers strike. Sixteen thousand workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 are holding strike authorization meetings today. Contracts for the...
  
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  Crain's NY: Supermarket Union Readies Strike Vote

  Supermarket union readies strike vote Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 could walk off their jobs at 150 New York area Pathmark, Stop & Shop and King Kullen locations before the July 4 holiday. By Daniel Massey Published: June 23, 2010 - 1:16 pm...
  
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  Fox New York: Grocery Workers Threaten Strike

  Grocery Store Workers Threaten To Strike Updated: Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010, 3:40 PM EDT Published : Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010, 3:40 PM EDT BY LUKE FUNK MYFOXNY.COM - 16,000 workers at local grocery stores are getting closer to a possible strike. The current contracts with Stop and Shop, King...
  
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  Poughkeepsie Journal: Union of grocery store workers seeks strike authorization

  The labor union representing about 1,000 workers at Stop & Shop in the mid-Hudson Valley has called on them to attend a strike authorization meeting Wednesday as the end of a four-year contract approaches. A strike authorization doesn't mean a strike. It gives the group's leaders the OK...
  
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  Bronx Times: Grocery Workers Call Federal Mediator

  United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW ) Local 1500, New York State's largest grocery workers Union, has called Federal Mediators into negotiations with the three major supermarkets in hopes of avoiding a crippling strike that would effect over 150 supermarkets and 16,000 workers....
  
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  Just-Food: US: Ahold, A&P face strike action in New York

  US supermarket's Stop and Shop, King Kullen Markets and A&P are facing the prospect of strikes in New York state.
  
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  SN: N.Y. Union Warns of Possible Strike

  The union representing 16,000 workers at supermarkets in the New York Metro area has begun a campaign to notify local officials and consumers of a potential strike as its contract with employers approaches a June 26 expiration date.
  
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  PG: As N.Y. Metro Strike Looms, UFCW Moves to Alert Public, Law Enforcement

  United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 1500, New York state's largest grocery workers' union, has begun notifying members of the public and local law enforcement of an impending strike that could affect over 150 Stop & Shop, King Kullen and A&P/Pathmark supermarkets and 16,000...
  

Thursday Morning One Liners...

"...We want more so that our people can actually earn a decent living because they contribute to the community. We’re trying to illustrate and highlight these issues, like healthcare, that are extremely important to people. Bad health or bad circumstances can bankrupt you, so it is important for all of us to have heath care, and that’s what we’re shooting for — livable wages and benefits for our members.”
-Pete Boehlen, President UFCW 1496, on the thought of Safeway reducing health care for employees, in The Homer Tribune, Alaska.

About 25,000 Fry's and Safeway grocery workers in Arizona are being asked to approve a new three-year contract that was hashed out at the eleventh hour last month to avert a pending strike. The AP has more.

Pathmark Supermarkets has entered a partnership with Municipal Credit Union (MCU) to place MCU ATMs in 16 Pathmark locations in the New York metropolitan area,

Yesterday, the Office of the United States Trustee appointed the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) to the Creditors Committee in the bankruptcy of Penn Traffic. 

Meanwhile the union members from Penn Traffic to be briefed on options & Penn Traffic may set an asking price for the chain. [Syracuse Post Standard]


Safeway eyes reducing health benefits. [Homer Tribune, Alaska]


Politics, City, Elsewhere

Robert Jackson's 'Small Business Survival Act' (a bill that would essentially regulate commercial rents for small-businesses) will be brought up for a vote before the NYC Council. [Observer]

NY Senate rejects same-sex marriage.

GE has sold NBC to Comcast for $30Billion.

Willets Point Statement...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT PAT PURCELL: Joinus1500@aol.com

November 11^th, 2008

New York State’s Largest Grocery Workers Union Calls on New York City Council to Support Willets Point Redevelopment; Vote To Be Held 11/13/2008

The following statement was released today by President Bruce W. Both, President of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500:

“While UFCW Local 1500 has long supported the development of Willets Point, we have always respected the leadership shown by Queens Councilmember Hiram Monserrate to ensure that the project includes affordable housing and a plan to relocate current tenants.

As we close in on this Thursdays vote on the re-zoning of Willets Point by the New York City Council, UFCW Local 1500 wants to strongly encourage the Council to pass the re-zoning plan. All parties have worked admirably to bring about the best possible resolution. However, we get to a moment where everyone must understand the benefits of passing this redevelopment plan and the serious consequences if the Council fails to act.

This plan will bring thousands of construction jobs that pay outstanding wages and benefits to the New York City economy. It will also include thousands of post construction jobs that will also provide living wages, affordable health care and many other economic benefits. It will also include a Supermarket, which is so important as the City realizes it is facing a crisis of Supermarket closings. That combined with affordable housing makes this a project that must go forward.

Failure to act on a project that includes thousands of jobs with important wage and benefit provisions at a time while New York City faces a serious financial crisis will add to that crisis.

There has been leadership, fair negotiations and the direct involvement of the New York City labor movement in this process. Now is the time to bring this project to a successful conclusion with a positive vote by the New York City Council on Willets Point redevelopment.”

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 is based out of Queens Village and represents 23,000 grocery workers in the Metropolitan New York area including but not limited to Pathmark, Stop and Shop, Shop Rite, D’agastinos, Fairway and Gristedes.