Happy New Year News!

As Bloomberg News reported, Supermarket News now reports that more and more retailers are preparing for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Yesterday, the Buffalo News reported that Tops is prepared to make an offer for Penn Traffic.

The Times Union has more: Tops to top Price Chopper bid.

DC Bag Tax
The largest supermarket retailers in the nation’s capital are preparing to give away free reusable bags during the coming week as a new 5-cent tax on both paper and plastic grocery bags takes effect Jan. 1.

Union janitors staged rallies at a Safeway in California last week and at Lucky and Save Mart stores in this area to protest an ongoing contract dispute. 

Wild by Nature Spreads Holiday Cheer

Local 1500 Representative Bob Funck recently joined Wild by Nature Local 1500 members in their annual spread of Holiday cheer this month.  Great job by everyone at Wild by Nature!  If you took any photos at any store this Holiday season be sure to send them in!

 

Tuesday Morning One Liners...

Target Corp. retooled a training video to warn workers against a bill that would make union organizing easier. Michaels Stores Inc. told investors “our businesses could be impacted” by the measure. Enrollment in Jackson Lewis LLP’s “How to Stay Union-Free” seminars tripled. -Bloomberg News: ‘Stay Union-Free’ Pushed by Target, Michaels as Obama Law Looms

You can now order alcohol online at SamsClub.com.

John Mackey is relinquishing his title as CEO of Whole Foods, a title he has held since 1978. Newswire release via WSJ.

U.S. retail sales were up 3.6% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with last year.

The Staten Island Advance looks at what effect the closing of King Kullen in the Castletown Corners will have residents.

Rallying against 'food deserts' in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Paper spotlights 'The Union Market'

Fresh Direct donates 400 Holiday Turkeys.

'Union Free' Message gets a Huge Push in 2009.

Walmart settles an organizing case in Minnesota. During the union's organizing campaign last summer, Wal-Mart sent a team from its corporate offices to the five stores where workers were most active in trying to form a union, according to Doug Mork, Local 789's organizing director. The team held daily meetings and tried to persuade employees they don't need a union. "They beat the crap out of us," Mork said. Wal-Mart, he added, is "an awfully tough nut to crack."

Good Read: The New Yorker profiles John Mackey in  Food Fighter, Does Whole Foods' (former) CEO know What's best for you?

Happy Holidays!

Image via Wikipedia

Happy Holidays from UFCW Local 1500!

We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!

Wednesday Morning One Liners...Walmart video tapes a restroom?

"I am absolutely and utterly incredulous that any company, especially a company of the size of Wal-Mart, would allow people to do this," McLain said today. "I can't believe that they had the audacity to do this."
-Erv McLain, Attorney representing current and former employees at a Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, alleging that Wal-Mart had authorized surveillance video-taping of an employee/customer uni-sex restroom.

The New Jersey Food Council here has announced opposition to a proposed $0.02 cents per gallon tax on all fluid milk sold in New Jersey. The tax was proposed last week as part of a plan to help the state's dairy farmers, who have struggled this year with a collapse in the wholesale price of milk.

A&P announced they will be offering coupons via www.coupons.com

A Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania secretly video taped employees and customers in the restroom. 

Is Walmart the future of Local Food?
One of the most important historic developments in the food economy is embodied in this statistic: in 1900, 40 percent of every dollar spent on food went to the farmer or rancher while the rest was split between inputs and distribution. Now? 7 cents on the dollar goes to the producer and 73 cents goes just to distribution. That’s worth keeping in mind when you read things like this:

... Wal-Mart, now the nation’s largest supermarket chain as well as retailer, has gotten into the local scene, embarking on an effort to procure more of its produce from local growers...

Read the article here.

Hannaford bought a former Stop & Shop in Maine.

Wine-vending Machines? Really?
Approximately 100 Pennsylvania grocery stores may soon be offering self-service wine-vending kiosks in a new program developed in partnership with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.(Image, Right, via ProgressiveGrocer.com)

You can watch Local 1500 President Bruce Both's speech at the Good Food Good Jobs coalition's celebration on FRESH here.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Inc. (A&P) has made a $20,000 donation to the “Table to Table” community-based food-rescue program to help feed the hungry during the holiday season.

Grand Junction Free Press in Colorado writes on some Safeway workers receiving a signing bonus for ratifying the company's 'final offer.'

NY Times: Former New York Times building to become mall, condos, hotel.