Aldi to Queens in 2010, The WFP wins again, Wednesday Morning Read...

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Nearly 300 UNITE HERE members protesting demands from major hotels in Chicago and San Francisco for cutbacks, and the firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston, were arrested in peaceful civil disobedience demonstrations in recent days.

Sign the petition to keep Stella D'oro production plant open in the Bronx!

Whole Foods protests are getting more creative, a musical protest was performed in Oakland this week.

Wal-Mart & K-Mart are targeting recession-weary toy buyers this holiday season, Wal-Mart is planning on offering 100 toys for $10.

Washington Post: From Whole Foods to the Food Bank, Middle Class residents find themselves with hat in hand.

Duane Reade launched a private label food brand.

Aldi Supermarket, [sister of Trader Joe's] will open its' first NYC store in Queens.  Don't expect the expansion to stop, they're plans are much larger than one store. For those new to Aldi, Aldi is known for its store-branded merchandise, with about 95% of the items exclusive to Aldi.  According to the company, Aldi's prices are up to 50% lower than the prices at traditional supermarkets.  Ranked 25th among U.S. grocery chains in gross sales, Aldi's Queens' store is part of a larger expansion plan, under which the company is opening some 80 new stores this year. BNet analyzes the move.

Meanwhile, Trader Joe's is in talks for opening another store, this one in Chelsea on 6th between 21st and 22nd.

Politics 

The turnout was low, but Bill De Blasio (138,736 votes) and John Liu (121,173) were winners in last night's runoff, marking another victory this election season for the Working Families Party, the NY Times City Room has more.
 

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• Can America's Urban Food Deserts Bloom? (time.com)

Tuesday Morning Read,

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A&P  said last week that Allan Richards, senior vice president, human resources, labor relations, legal services and secretary, will leave the company to pursue other opportunities.

A breakthrough collective agreement has been reached between the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) and Floralia Growers of Abbotsford, B.C. Read details here.

WakeupWal-Mart covers Wal-Mart's pricing fail, the same item marked separately as four different prices. 

Massachusetts’ attorney general says Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $3 million to settle complaints it did not give some employees proper meal breaks. 

One of the most heavily trafficked food stamp offices in NYC will be shutting its' doors in Coney Island, forcing hundreds of poor to travel to Downtown NYC to collect food stamps.

The Daily News covers what's going on at the Kingsbridge Armory Supermarket development.

Detroit, fights for access to fresh healthy food.

Whole Foods protesters greet executives at the annual 'Natural Products Expo' in Boston.

Last week the NYC Planning Commission OK'd Supermarket Incentives, but neglected to allow only 'responsible employers' access to the incentives, allowing all supermarkets, including those who treat workers poorly, treat communities poorly and fail to provide healthy food, to these lucrative incentives.  The plan is short-sighted.

Politics

President Obama may sit out the NYC Mayoral race between Thompson and Bloomberg.

Governor Patterson vowed not to back out of running on National TV Sunday.

Contract negotiations are approaching, find out here when your proposal meeting is!

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• CNBC: Wage War at Wal-Mart (msnbc.msn.com)

Local 1500 Slams City Planning Dept. on Flaws in Supermarket Initiative...

Press Release: September 24, 2009

Grocery Store Union Slams City Planning over Supermarket Initiative, Will Seek City Council Support to Correct Major Flaws and

Tax-Free Gifts to Irresponsible Employers

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New York City’s largest Union representing supermarket workers, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 1500, announced that it will launch a major initiative to correct what they see as “major flaws” in a new supermarket initiative that was approved by the New York City Department of City Planning yesterday. They also expressed outrage over the idea that the initiative would provide tax-payer giveaways to irresponsible employers like Whole Foods.

“It is disgraceful to think that New York City, in these difficult economic times, would approve a plan to provide tax free gifts and zoning favors to a company like Whole Foods,” stated Patrick Purcell Jr., Director of Special Projects for UFCW Local 1500. “Never in the dozens of meetings between our Union and the City was it suggested that this was the goal of the FRESH initiative.

Whole Foods does hundreds of million in sales, aggressively opposes healthcare reform that will benefit millions of New Yorkers and sells what its own CEO John Mackey called “junk” at very high prices. Whole Foods needs and deserves tax subsidies from New York City about as much New York City residents need and deserve another subway fare increase,” Purcell claimed.

“Whole Foods doesn’t believe tax dollars should be used to help with our nation’s healthcare crisis but would happily accept tax subsidies to build more of its own stores.”

The Union announced it will initiate an aggressive campaign to educate and inform City Council members about “both the major flaws in the FRESH initiative and the misleading objectives that were presented to our Union over the past several months by City officials,” according to Purcell. “We negotiated in good faith for months so a fair and reasonable initiative could move forward that would bring New York City communities equal access to fresh, healthy and affordable food and what they got today was an expensive rotten apple.”

The Union will also reach out to the City’s other Unions, community groups and faith-based organizations.  “The 23,000 members of UFCW Local 1500 have an outstanding reputation of being strong partners with our elected officials and communities as we all seek ways to bring good food, good jobs and good health to our underserved communities. In fact, it was UFCW Local 1500 that brought this issue to the forefront with elected officials over two years ago when the issue was receiving little attention.  However, support for the FRESH initiative in the form it was sent to the New York City Council today is unacceptable to all New Yorkers,” Purcell concluded.

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. Members of Local 1500 are employed by Pathmark, King Kullen, Stop and Shop, Gristedes, Fairway, D’agastinos, Key Food and Shop Rite.    

For more information contact: Pat Purcell,  joinus1500@aol.com Or head to www.buildingblocksproject.org 



-UFCW Local 1500,

Local 1500 is on Facebook and Twitter, Friend us, Follow us! 
You can find all our archived news on the 1500 Blog.

NYC has new Health Plan, Philly gets four new supermarkets, Obama speaks at AFL-CIO convention, Wednesday Morning Read

“When labor succeeds—that’s when our middle class succeeds. And when our middle class succeeds—that’s when the United States of America succeeds.”
-President Barack Obama speaking at the 2009 AFL-CIO annual convention.

ShopRite, voted one of the best supermarkets in the nation.

New York City sets a new ambitious health plan, targeting smoking, sugary soda's and sports drinks and promoting more exercise... Including a possible ban on smoking in public parks?

Tariffs on Tires: President Obama took decisive action on Monday to provide relief to the domestic consumer tire industry in response to surging exports of tires from China. His actions will bring relief to many workers and their families and reverse course after eight years of neglect of trade laws by the Bush administration.

Steven Greenhouse of the NY Times has more: Tire Tariffs are Cheered by Union.

King Soopers and Safeway workers could go on strike as early as Oct. 6 if the grocery chains do not increase pension and wage offers in contract negotiations that have dragged on for over five months, union officials said Tuesday.

Supermarket News reports that workers will begin voting on Saturday on their "Final Contract Offer"

Meanwhile, UFCW Local 99 [Arizona] will resume negotiations with Safeway, Fry's & Smith's this week. 

The state of Pennsylvania may be supporting the development of four new supermarkets in under-served areas in Philadelphia.

A bill introduced in California would stop the sales of alcohol in self checkout lanes.  The Ventura County Star has a more detailed story.




Politics/Primary

Here is a complete list of results from yesterday's Primary.


Public Advocate: Mark Green and Bill De Blasio will have a runoff vote on September 29th.

Council Member Kendall Stewart is upset by rising star, community activist Jumanne Williams.

Rick Lazio, the former Long Island congressman who ran against Hillary Rodham Clinton for the US Senate in 2000, will formally declare he's a candidate for governor -- potentially putting him on a primary collision course with Rudy Giuliani.

Monday Morning Read,

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"It was labor that helped build the largest middle class in history. So, even if you're not a union member, every American owes something to America's labor movement,"
- Barack Obama, speaking at an AFL-CIO rally in Cincinnati.

A new study revealed retail jobs are expected to grow dramatically over the next few years, which begs the question: will they be good jobs?

A&P plans to split stores into four store types, 
Over the next five years, about 100 stores will be converted to price impact or discount stores. Currently, around 150 locations are operating as price impact stores, with plans to add an additional 50. By 2014, A&P will have 50 or 60 discount stores...The announcement is getting a lot of press.

Workers at Safeway's Edmonton distribution center returned to work Saturday afternoon, ending a six day strike.

UFCW Local 7 in Colorado and King Soopers are still in a deadlock today, as their contract expired at midnight.

The Teamsters call on Whole Foods to support Health Care reform.

Time Magazine: Wal-Mart's new plan to crush competition: Project Impact.

Politics
Crain's looks at the tremendous growth (and power) of the Working Families Party.

Liz Benjamin of the Daily News, says the Working Families Party has a target on their back, as several groups are rallying together to try and reduce their growing clout.

Gov. David Paterson said Saturday that he won't support the Legislature's proposed ethics bill, which he says would be like "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Remember tomorrow is Primary Day get out and vote!