Wednesday Morning Quick One Liners...32BJ

Just a few quick stories this morning...

7-Eleven Tests New Delivery Program which would Eliminate Union Jobs

Under the test program, "drinks will be shipped to a Costco business center, where a third-party logistics company will pick them up and deliver them to a warehouse. Then, when 7-Eleven stores need replenishment, the drinks will ship to the stores with other products as well."

In the typical DSD model, Coke ships drinks from its bottling facility to an adjacent warehouse, where they await shipment to a distribution center before being shipped to individual stores

Fairway Market is waiting to sign a lease for the 240 East 86th Street storefront until it can reach a deal with the MTA and Department of Transportation for an expanded loading zone. Read more @ DNAinfo

Supermarket News: A&P here on Tuesday said it has named Mark Kramer as its new senior vice president of operations.

Whole Foods has set a goal to reduce energy consumed per square foot 25 percent by 2015.

32BJ has reached a deal,The owners of more than 3,200 apartment buildings in New York City reached an agreement on a new labor contract with the union that represents about 30,000 doormen, porters, janitors and building superintendents, averting a strike that was due to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday. read more at New York Times

Tuesday Morning One Liners: Fresh Direct Won't Cross a 32BJ Picket Line, D'Agostino's New Ad Campaign

Progressive Grocer: Tackling Obesity; A Blueprint for Sucess. 
For the first time, government, the food and beverage industry, parents, and other stakeholders  share the same goal in tackling Obesity.

Stop & Shop Promotes their Green ways, gives away a Hybrid:
As a way to mark Earth Day this week, Stop & Shop is drawing attention to such company-wide green initiatives as the incorporation of sustainable product on shelves, the implementation of energy-efficient lighting in stores and a policy of encouraging customers to use reusable bags. Additionally, this month, the Ahold USA division plans to give away two Honda Insight Hybrids.

The NY Times looks at D'Agostino's new witty, creative advertising campaign: "Managers Gone Wild!"
The specials, on groceries, meat, poultry, produce and baked goods, are peddled with one-liners not often found in the stodgy world of supermarket marketing.
“Somebody slap me, please,” Bob Fonti, the meat manager, says about a sale on Shady Brook ground turkey.
The produce manager, John Vasapoli, declares: “I’ve gone mad! Mad, I tell you!” in pricing broccoli.
You can check out the TV spot here.

Crain's checks out a Park Slope Food Coop that is 'running up more profits and members than it knows what to do with'

New York Times looks at buying in bulk in NYC a look at Costco in Manhattan: 30 Pack of Charmin, but Where to Store It?
When Costco opened its first Manhattan outpost last November, in a soaring East 116th Street shopping complex with river views, management did not know precisely who or what to expect: Would customers stream in from East Harlem and Washington Heights? Or would the aisles be flooded with Upper West Siders stocking up on San Pellegrino? How much demand would there be for kosher meat? Costcos nationwide sell some 57 million rolls of Charmin per month: would people living in cramped apartments go for those 30-roll packages?

Retailwire: Costco's Manhattan Project (Free Subscription Required)

The Journal News: Fairway's Grand Opening in Pelham Manor

The Westchester Magazine checks out Fairway's Grand Opening in Pelham Manor

The Bronx News has great photos of the grand opening

32BJ Contract

"We are ready to walk out if we need to. We all have families to support and rents to pay."
- Santiago Gonzalez, a doorman on the upper East Side and SEIU 32BJ strike captain, in today's Daily News.


Fresh Direct Won't Cross 32BJ Picket Line: Fresh Direct will refuse to enter buildings whose doormen are on strike. The unionized drivers of Local 348S want to show solidarity with building workers, and will make anyone who orders groceries to those buildings meet them on the street and carry the boxes themselves. Union leader Eduardo Cordero said “We will not be putting our members in any kind of danger or any situation that would provoke trouble... At the same time, the company still has to provide a service."


NY Times: If Doormen Strike, Residents must pick up the Slack

Business Week: NY Doorman Strike May Trash Men of Luxury Residents

Politics
NY Post: Gillibrand can't crack the 50% barrier

Voters in Washington could see an initiative this year to break up the state government monopoly on liquor sales [NY Times]

Elsewhere
And finally, Danny Glover a great friend to the UFCW and Labor, was arrested in a food protest.

Friday Morning One Liners: Trader Joe's makes a promise,

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Whole Foods Market, said it is actively seeking store sites in London after several years of inactivity in the United Kingdom.[Supermarket News]

Ahold on Thursday said it would base its non-perishable and fresh merchandising functions in its Carlisle, Pa., offices as part of an ongoing reorganization first announced last November.

UFCW Local 371 protested a ShopRite opening yesterday.
“This is a fight to protect jobs, family and community,” read literature handed out by members of Local 371, United Food & Commercial Workers Union.  The new ShopRite workers will make about $5 an hour less than their union counterparts at the Stop & Shop across the street, said Brian Petronella, president of Local 371. Union workers also have a pension plan, Petronella said.

Trader Joe's has promised to completely stock shelves with sustainable seafood by 2012.

Stop & Shop set to open former Shaw's stores. [Supermarket News]

More: Middletown Press: Stop & Shop opens today at the site of a former Shaw's

A&P to offer free re-usable bags:
Through April 30, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. and Zavers are teaming up for Earth Month promotion in which participating customers can receive a free reusable Elizabeth Haub bag by redeeming a paperless coupon linked directly to their shopper loyalty cards.

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review looks at what Stern's retirement will do to the labor movement.

The Patriot Ledger: The BJ's in Quincy, Mass. debacle continues...

NY Times: Wall-Street must recover before NYC can overcome recession.

Wednesday One Liners...

Image via Wikipedia

Andy Stern, President of the SEIU has announced he will step down.

NY Times: Andy Stern, the nation’s most politically influential union president, will announce plans this week to resign, several union officials said, in a move that surprised and shook organized labor and Democratic political circles.

The UFCW proudly announces its support for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative legislation introduced Monday by New York legislators Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez (D-NY). [Press Release]

Senator Gillibrand Press Release: To help three million New Yorkers living in so-called “food desert” neighborhoods that have little or no access to fresh, nutritious foods, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Representative Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) were joined today by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), UFCW Local 1500 President Bruce Both, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, and PolicyLink Founder & CEO Angela Glover Blackwell to launch the Healthy Food Financing Initiative

Shaw's
Gov. Deval Patrick is calling on Shaw’s management and employees to cut a deal to end a 6-week-old strike by 300 workers at the chain’s Methuen distribution facility.
“I strongly urge both parties to continue to bargain and resolve their differences at the bargaining table quickly and fairly,” Patrick wrote in a letter to both sides. “Doing so will allow Shaw’s to focus on running its supermarkets while allowing the striking employees to return to good-paying jobs at Shaw’s.” Read more here.

Connecticut: A Shaw's closes, will transform into a Stop & Shop.

Hartford Business: A former Shaw's Supermarket in Southington Plaza Shopping Center will reopen as a Shop Rite once renovations are complete.  Wakefern Food Corp. is leasing the 60,000 square feet at 750 Queen St. that Shaw's closed and vacated about two years ago.

TheDay.com: Stop & Shop on Friday will open five new stores that it acquired from Shaw's.
The stores are in Darien, East Hampton, New Fairfield, Newington and Vernon. The stores underwent minor renovations earlier this month.

In recent weeks, Starbucks has closed 19 licensed stores at Stop & Shop and Giant locations in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires.

BJ's Wholesale Club has run into a series of problems in Quincy, Mass. On Tuesday, the company and town met to discuss a resolution.

NY Times: 32BJ Contract: With a strike deadline looming, contract negotiations between the owners of apartment buildings and the union that represents doormen and other workers have been complicated by very different views on whether the city’s economy has turned a corner.

How to eat well on a Food Stamp Diet:
With job growth and the economy still only sputtering along, a record number of Americans have turned to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for federal food stamp program.
At the end of last year, roughly 1 in 8 Americans received food stamps, the highest rate ever.
Politics 
The UFCW is launching a new legislative and political website, voteufcw.org. The site was designed with UFCW members and locals in mind--we’ve stocked it with crucial information and helpful tools to make it easier to take action and stay informed on politics and the issues that matter to working Americans.

More than two dozen elected officials turned out on the City Hall steps yesterday to back state Sen. Eric Schneiderman as he announced his run for state attorney general. Read more at the NY Post

Senator Gillibrand Announces National Effort to Bring Fresh Food and Good Jobs to NYC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  APRIL 12, 2010

FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS JOIN NATIONAL EFFORT TO BRING FRESH FOOD AND GOOD JOBS TO FOOD DESERT NEIGHBORHOODS

(NEW YORK, NY) – The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) proudly announces its support for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative legislation introduced today by New York legislators Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez (D-NY). 

The legislation will provide $1 billion through loans and grants to help build approximately 2,100 new grocery stores in high need areas across the country, including an estimated 273 stores in New York City. The initiative would create an estimated 200,000 new jobs nationally.

The Healthy Food Financing Initiative is a critical part of rejuvenating and revitalizing underserved neighborhoods both in terms of food quality and quality jobs that can support a family. 

New York-based UFCW Local 1500 is a leading partner in the New York FRESH Initiative which serves as a model for the national legislation and has successfully launched two major supermarkets into previously underserved areas in the Bronx.  Those supermarkets also added hundreds of new jobs and subsequent income to area residents.

Supermarkets act as anchors for economic development in a neighborhood.  In community after community, good supermarket jobs provide workers with good wages, career opportunities and most importantly, quality health care coverage that is key to a healthy lifestyle.   UFCW members in New York and across the U.S. take pride in serving their customers with good food.   This national legislation will provide needed funding to expand those opportunities into even more markets.

The UFCW applauds Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Velasquez for their vision in bringing worker organizations together with the economic development leaders and health policy advocates to ensure that new food outlets also provide good career jobs and training opportunities for new employees.

We believe that working together works.  With the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, we will:

·        Create new jobs from building new supermarkets in underserved neighborhoods;

·        Create new jobs from operating those stores; and

·        Create new jobs from related development which will grow up and around the new stores.

All the while, providing millions of residents with access to good, healthy, affordable food.

-30-

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, based out of Queens Village, represents over 23,000 grocery workers in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties and New Jersey. Members of Local 1500 are employed by Pathmark, King Kullen, Stop and Shop, Gristedes, Fairway, D’agastinos, Key Food and Shop Rite.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) represents more than 1.3 million workers, with over 1 million in the retail food industry. The UFCW protects the rights of workers and strengthens America’s middle class by fighting for health care reform, living wages, retirement security, safe working conditions and the right to unionize so that working men and women and their families can realize the American Dream.

For more information, contact Pat Purcell, UFCW Local 1500 at 973-583-9651 or Jill Cashen, UFCW, 202-728-4797 or email press@ufcw.org

UFCW News Service
www.ufcw.org