Union Membership up in 2008, Thursday Morning One Liners...

The United Food & Commercial Workers Union here yesterday called for “immediate confirmation” of President Obama’s choice for secretary of labor, Hilda Solis.

Report: Union Membership up Sharply in 2008.

The Ford Motor company said Thursday that it lost $14.6 billion last year, making 2008 its worst year in history as a result of the biggest sales slump in decades, but will not ask for relief.

The Astroland rocket has been donated to the city. [Crains]

Liquor stores are the new victim to box stores with David Patterson's proposal to sell liquor at stores like Whole Foods & Wal-Mart. [Crains]

Starbucks to close more stores, cut jobs.

Shea Stadium is pretty much demolished.

The Fresh Market, the trendy southern grocer, is opening their first store in Connecticut.

Without a single republican vote, President Obama won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery plan as Congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending.

Target reduces workforce by 9%.

The Queens Tribune looks at upcoming local elections.


From the WFP

NY Times (Gail Collins): Lilly's Big Day

President Obama is scheduled to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law today. (This is, technically, his second bill-signing, not the first. But you cannot possibly expect us to make a fuss about legislation fixing the salary of the secretary of the interior.) "I'm so excited I can hardly stand it," Ledbetter said recently after the bill passed the Senate. Obama told her story over and over when he campaigned for president: How Ledbetter, now 70, spent years working as a plant supervisor at a tire factory in Alabama. How, when she neared retirement, someone slipped her a pay schedule that showed her male colleagues were making much more money than she was. A jury found her employer, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, to be really, really guilty of pay discrimination. But the Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision led by the Bush appointees, threw out Ledbetter's case, ruling that she should have filed her suit within 180 days of the first time Goodyear paid her less than her peers.

Stop & Shop new logo, Wal-Mart sells milk at too low of a price & Friday Morning One Liners...

After another falling profit, Target announced they will challenge Wal-Mart on low prices.

UFCW leaders are preparing to use a history-making collective agreement won by nine Wal-Mart garage workers to organize more of the retailer's Canadian stores.

"Always Low Prices" isn't always a good thing for Wal-Mart, apparently. The discounter was warned by Puerto Rican authorities on Thursday that it was selling milk too cheaply on the island.

Stop & Shop and Giant of Ladover, Md., are unveiling new logos today, part of an effort to highlight broad changes being made in the stores.

Read more of this story

The City Council in Oceanside California is expected to give final approval next week to what an official termed a business-friendly law that would require store owners to take more responsibility for keeping shopping carts on their premises.

Consumers looking for values drove hefty increases in sales and store traffic to BJ's Wholesale Club during the second quarter, but a relatively cautious outlook sent stock in the retailer down by more than 7% Wednesday.
Read more of this story

 

ACDC will sell their album exclusively at Wal-Mart.

Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety for Wal-Mart Stores, encouraged other food retailers to join Wal-Mart and several other major global retailers in embracing the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), an effort to create and adopt uniform food safety standards.
Read more of this story

 

Politics

Sen. Barack Obama said he has decided on his running mate, but he's not saying who it is.
Bloomberg rethinks term limits...


 The New York Sun editorial board says David Paterson is backing the effort to extend term limits.


Business Owners Send Strong Message on Willets Point:A group of business owners opposing Mayor Bloomberg's rezoning plan for Willets Point slowed traffic around Shea Stadium before yesterday's Mets game by putting on the streets trucks carrying slogans such as "Hands Off Our Land, Bloomberg!"