Message from Governor Cuomo on Justice Scalia

photograph of the justices, cropped to show Justice Scalia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s biggest fans and greatest detractors might not see eye to eye on much, but on this they would agree: Justice Scalia believed first and foremost in the Constitution of the United States. The specific words were the focus for many of his decisions and dissents during his three decades on the bench of the Supreme Court.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution states that the President shall have the power to nominate, with the advice and consent of the Senate, Justices of the Supreme Court. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say the President or the U.S. Senate should put aside these responsibilities because of politics or a presidential election, and we cannot let partisan bickering cripple the nation's highest court.

Washington gridlock has already succeeded in largely immobilizing the legislative and executive branches of our federal government. To allow it to now paralyze the judicial branch, in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, would be a disservice to both parties and to Justice Scalia's legacy. And this is not an academic exercise. The current Supreme Court term could be one of the most important in the last 50 years, with cases affecting women's health, immigration and workers' rights.

This only underscores the fact that the American people deserve an orderly and swift confirmation process, and that’s why I wrote an op-ed, which you can read here.

The Constitution lays out clearly the guiding principles of our government's responsibilities to the people. Some of the most important responsibilities are shared between the different branches of government for the very reason that divided control would force both parties to work together. We will have failed our founding fathers and the document they signed if our parties' leaders are no longer willing to even try.

Politics are always hard to put aside, even harder in an election year. But in this moment both Democrats and Republicans need to put their Constitutional responsibilities first. That’s what we've done here in New York, that's what needs to finally happen in Washington D.C. and that's what the legacy of Justice Scalia deserves.

Sincerely,


Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Pathmark Bankruptcy: Job Opportunities @ Bogopa Food Bazaar

Job Posting Announcement

In the wake of the A&P bankruptcy, we will be periodically sending job postings to our members who were displaced and affected by the bankruptcy.

Bogopa Food Bazaar is hiring!

The former Pathmark store in Brentwood is seeking both Full and Part-Time help.

Most applicants must be available to work 30-hours or more a week.

Competitive wages will be offered.

Starting Thursday, February 18th, management will be conducting interviews and hiring on-site at their new Brentwood location.

Hiring Starts: Thursday, February 18, 2016

Where: Food Bazaar 101 Wicks Rd. Brentwood, New York 11717

Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

For more information on this hiring event or others, please contact us:

UFCW Local 1500

800-522-0456

info@ufcw1500.org

@ufcw1500

facebook.com/ufcw1500

 

In Wake of A&P Bankruptcy, Local 1500 Helps Pass Grocery Workers Retention Act in NYC

New legislation will provide a 90-day job protection for grocery workers who face unemployment through no fault of their own.

Yesterday,  Local 1500 joined elected officials, labor and community leaders, and workers as Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the Grocery Workers Retention Act (GWRA) at City Hall.

The GWRA (Int 632-2015) provides for a ninety-day transition period to eligible employees following a change in ownership of a grocery store.

The transition period is a temporary protection for employees who may face unemployment through no fault of their own. The grocery industry makes up a significant portion of New York City’s retail workforce with over 50,000 employees and roughly two-thirds of this workforce coming from immigrant labor.

As we know first hand, our industry suffers from a volatile condition with the eminent merger, closing or the establishment of new ownership of our supermarkets jeopardizing the future of workers and the quality of life of countless communities. The recent A&P bankruptcy has provided a vivid example of this, affecting over 30,000 men and women throughout the northeast. 52 stores were impacted throughout the five boroughs including subsidiary brands such as Pathmark, Waldbaum’s, Food Emporium, and Food Basics. Some stores have been closed, others sold or auctioned, or even transformed into non-supermarket entities.

 Council Member I. Daneek Miller (who proposed the GWRA) noted the importance of the act for both workers and communities in New York City, “Through this legislation we are able to provide communities with stability that would otherwise not exist during grocery transitions. We have already seen the terrible impact that A&P’s bankruptcy had on families throughout the City, and we don’t want to see such again. High worker retention rates are consistently associated with higher customer satisfaction. Experienced employees provide better service – they can find items more quickly, check out customers more efficiently, and provide culturally competent service,” said Council Member Miller.

Retention also keeps operating costs down, passing savings to communities. Turnover, from new training to lost productivity, costs the supermarket industry as a whole close to $5 billion a year. "All too often when supermarkets change ownership, workers' job security is uncertain at best," said Bruce Both, President of UFCW Local 1500, New York State's largest supermarket Union. "It is not fair to these working men and women or their communities, where union wages serve as economic anchors. I commend Councilman I. Daneek Miller, the Progressive Caucus and the entire New York City Council for passing legislation to end this injustice and provide grocery workers in the City of New York with a 90-day window to showcase their skills and stabilize the transition for the community."

The GWRA applies to grocery stores (or retailers with grocery departments) 10,000 square feet or larger excluding areas for storage, loading, food preparation, or eating. For perspective, this size is larger than three professional tennis courts combined and could serve to park roughly 100 midsized sedans. The legislation’s provisions apply only to workers who have worked a minimum average of eight hours a week and have been employed at the establishment for the previous six months.

Top 12 Stories This Week: Walmart to Close, MLK, Gutting Unions

FEATURED

Cuomo to Create $15 Minimum Wage for New York State Workers - See more at: http://www.portside.org/2015-11-10/cuomo-create-15-minimum-wage-new-york-state-workers-2#sthash.mFP5LEwn.dpuf

Walmart to Close 269 Stores - Over 10,000 U.S. workers affected
154 stores will close in the United States, including their entire 102 Walmart Express small-format stores.
Read more here and more in depth at Supermarket News.

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

WHAT'S NEWS THIS WEEK: 1. A&P Sells 3 Sites to Acme...Greenway brand to Allegiance In court documents filed this week, A&P said Acme had offered $1.3 million for the leases of closed A&P stores located in Patterson, N.Y., and Boonton, N.J., as well as a wine and liquor store in Old Greenwich, Conn. 2. The Huffington Post has Unionized Welcome our newest brothers and sisters, @HuffPost, the largest digital media outlet to unionize. What's better? Management's response: "Assuming a majority, we will recognize the union," she continued. "We look forward to a great relationship with our union as we work together to take The Huffington Post to new heights across the world." Related: Look inside Gawker's Negotiations for first Union Contract

3. What it Means to Have Work 'Anytime, Any day of the Week' Scheduling has become the number 1 issue in our new economy.

4. Chain of Convenience Stores invests $15 million to Raises Wages without Cutting Hours The family-owned and operated chain of convenience stores and gas stations announced plans to devote upwards of $15 million to increase employee wages across the board. The company states in a press release that it’s doing so without cutting back on employee hours. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/workplace/article47761650.html#storylink=cpy “We believe that paying wages at the upper end of the retail scale is necessary to achieve that goal.”

5. UFCW Endorses Hillary Clinton for President This week President Perrone announced the UFCW's endorsement for President of the United States. “We announce this endorsement with the full belief that the frustrations felt by the American people are real, and that they deserve an America where better wages and better benefits are enjoyed by all who help make this nation great."

6. Immigrants or Executives: Who is to blame for Wage Stagnation?

7. How Defunding Public Unions will Diminish Our Democracy This week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The case pits the right of public employees to band together and form effective unions to pursue the common interests of workers against the free speech rights of dissenting public employees to abstain from funding collective bargaining efforts with which they disagree.

8. Will the Supreme Court Defund & Gut Public Unions? This major case will change the landscape for unions in our country forever; all union members must pay close attention. Related: Economist: Supreme Court Poised to Strike Unions

9. Workers & Wages...What Henry Ford Understood This month in 1914, Henry Ford doubled the wages of his production workers to  $5 a day. Adjusted for inflation, that would come out to $118.67 in 2015 dollars, almost $15 an hour for an eight-hour day (in 1926, Ford Motor became one of the first major corporations to adopt a five-day, 40-hour workweek). This applied to male workers and was extended to women in 1916.

10. With Public Sector Unions On The Rocks, Middle Class May Take Another Hit New calculations quantify how much the decline of unions contributes to economic inequality.

11. Income Inequality Shows No Signs of Slowing Down in the U.S. Related: How can companies better care for 'low-wage' workers? What does a changing grocery industry mean to our union? Three mergers between enormous grocery chains will change our entire industry. They've created three new super chains that now employ over 1 million people in America. Mergers and the emergence of technology are having a dramatic effect on workers lives.  President Both sums up how our union and industry needs to react. Elsewhere & Out there: Environment: If you haven't heard, Flint Michigan has an enormous water problem and now people are dying due to a 'cost-saving' measure. A federal probe has just been announced to investigate. via Washington Post: The city of Flint, Mich., is in the midst of a water crisis several years in the making. The city opted out of Detroit's water supply and began drawing water from the Flint River in April 2014, part of a cost-saving move. Eighteen months later, in the fall of 2015, researchers discovered that the proportion of children with above-average lead levels in their blood had doubled. Republican Debate: The NY Daily News responds to Ted Cruz's thoughts on New Yorkers. PHOTO OF THE WEEK Humans of New York “Everyone has a hard on for the union. They think we’re lazy or this or that, or maybe that there’s mafia influence, but honestly I just think they don’t like the little man having a voice. More and more construction sites are non-union these days. Nobody wants to pay $30 an hour plus benefits if an immigrant will do the same job for $14 an hour. And if everything goes non-union, I might as well go work at McDonald’s because I’ll be making the same amount of money. If the union collapses, I’m going to lose my pension. The way pensions work-- each generation pays for the previous generation. So without a new generation of union workers, there’s not going to be any money left for me. And I’ll have to work until I die.” Thank You: It's often a thankless job, so we'd like to say, thank you. And thank you for being a subscriber.

 

UFCW Endorses Hillary Clinton for President

Former President Clinton visited Pathmark in the 90's

Some breaking news from our International President Marc Perrone. As the early primary and caucus states are gearing up to vote in just three weeks, the UFCW is announcing its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

Please read the message from International President Perrone below:

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

Since last year, we have actively engaged and reached out to our diverse 1.3 million members about the issues they care about and the positions they want the next President of the United States to fight for.  Based on this feedback, the UFCW is announcing today its endorsement of Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

We have been completely committed to pursuing a thorough presidential endorsement process. This effort included a series of nationwide meetings with current members and UFCW Local Union officers, internal polls of our union members, as well as focus groups with working and middle class non-union families from across the country who currently work or have worked in retail. By doing this, we were able to determine the issues that matter most to UFCW members and the workers we fight for every day.

Based on these results, as well as additional discussions with UFCW Local Union Presidents and the UFCW International Executive Board, the collective decision was that Hillary Clinton is indeed the best qualified and positioned candidate to win in 2016 and fight for the issues--such as job security, fair scheduling, paid leave, raising wages, immigration, and health care reform--that matter most to our diverse union family.

Hillary Clinton has also held consistent polling leads with women, African Americans and Hispanics.  The broad diversity of the people who support her, coupled with her robust stances on the most important issues, point to our members’ having a strong belief that Hillary Clinton is not just the strongest presidential candidate, but the right one.

Our incredible members, both retail and non-retail workers, who help feed and serve this nation, deserve a president like Hillary Clinton who will fight to make sure that paid leave, stable schedules, and higher wages become more than an election promise--they’ll become a reality.

In Solidarity,

Marc