Top 10 Stories This Week: Americans Aren't Lovin' It, Wage Theft, Right to Work Chicago?!

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McDonald's $9 million Super Bowl ad shows customers paying with love...Maybe they should show employees some McLovin'?

In December McDonald's workers took to the streets to protest low wages, dreadful working conditions, and no stability.  The $9m McLovin' ad, isn't fooling anyone in the press, and really don't make sense to employees who have an open civil rights suit against the company . Heck, even Managers are admitting to Wage Theft, it's a bad time to be a clown.

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Protesters gathered in front of Walmart heiress Alice Walton's Park Avenue apartment in NYC this week, demanding Walmart ends retaliation against its workers.  Follow #walmartstrikers for more photos and info.

WHAT'S NEWS THIS WEEK 1. Fairway sees Improvements in Q3 New CEO is seeing some immediate improvements. 2. U.S. Added 46,000 Retail Jobs in January

3. Governor of Illinois Targets Labor, Seeks a 'Right to Work' State Joining the ranks of Republican governors taking aim at the power of labor unions, the new chief executive of Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner, said on Wednesday that the state should ban some political contributions by public employee unions and allow local “right to work” laws.  This is a story we all need to pay close attention to and fight back against.

4. We Built the Middle Class & We Can Re-Build It Most members of Congress today are millionaires. Their wealth has increased 28 percent since 2007, while that of the average American fell 43 percent.  How can they relate to us?

5. Americans: No Longer Lovin' It Is this the downfall of McDonald's?  After airing a Super Bowl ad asking customers to pay with love, employees are asking, where is our love?

6. Haggen begins to re-banner Albertsons The Safeway-Albertsons merge is done, and here's the new banner. Executives are very optimistic, others, not so much.

7. Wegman's tops 'reputation' poll Company tops Costco & Amazon

8. Want to be Happy? Join a Union New study shows belonging to a union leads to a more satisfied life.

9. Target names new CIO from Tesco

10. Walmart's Echinacea has No Echinacea Bottles of Walmart-brand echinacea, an herb said to ward off colds, were found to contain no echinacea at all. The NY Attorney General unveiled a report showing retail chains getting over on their customers with supplements. 11. Report: Hospitals Fails to Protect Nurses from becoming Patients According to surveys by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are more than 35,000 back and other injuries among nursing employees every year, severe enough that they have to miss work.

12. NYC Construction Workers March Against Junk Jobs

13. World's Email Encryption Software Depends on One Guy, Who is Going Bankrupt

The man who built the free email encryption software used by whistleblower Edward Snowden, as well as hundreds of thousands of journalists, dissidents and security-minded people around the world, is running out of money to keep his project alive.

14. Unions Re-Powering Civil Rights  Movement & Protests: Black History Month

During the recent wave of protests around the nation over the killing of unarmed blacks by police, an old ally has reemerged to march in step with African-Americans seeking justice — organized labor.

Elsewhere NYC News:

LSSA 280 is on Strike. On January 30th,  MFY union members voted to reject the unreasonable contract offered by MFY management, and are now on strike. Please join our MFY members on the picket line: The union will be picketing MFY, 299 Broadway in lower Manhattan, Monday through Thursday from 8:30am-10am.

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Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today & Always

Cover of Martin Luther King, Jr.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn. after speaking to a group of striking AFCSME sanitation workers.  We remember him today and always as a man who tirelessly fought for the working class, social justice, and economic justice.

He fought to educate the American public on illnesses facing our country and culture, some of which are still plaguing our country today.  Dr. King was a leading voice against ‘Right-to-work’ legislation, legislation that was recently passed in Indiana, which weakens labor unions and rights of workers banding together to fight for a better quality of life.  In 1961 Dr. King gave his opinion on “Right-to-Work”:

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining... We demand this fraud be stopped.”

In his last speech before Dr. King was assassinated 44 years ago today, he addressed a group of AFCSME striking Sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. The beautiful words he spoke in 1968 still resonate today.

“You are demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth.”

The words resonate with us as retail workers.  So often retail work throughout grocery stores is overlooked.  We thank you all, for serving our communities with professionalism, and making shopping a pleasant experience for New Yorkers.

The labor movement, fighting to better the lives of the working class, eternally honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and activists alike who fought and fight every day for social and economic justice.