Walmart is pushing through the distractions, CEO Michael Duke told shareholders at the annual meeting today, and aims to continue its momentum both in the U.S. and globally. At least, that's the grand plan. Critics continue to wage war on Walmart, including its own employees currently staging walkouts across the country (a first for the retail giant) over wages and benefits; they're even threatening a Black Friday strike on its biggest selling day of the year.

But at least Duke could declare to the meeting in Rogers, Ark., that the chain has stopped shooting itself in the foot the way it did a couple of years ago. That's when Walmart radically shifted its traditional merchandising and promotion strategy to move upscale, and the combination of consumer rejection of that tack plus the strains of the recession caused it to stumble in its crucial U.S. home market.Continue reading...

In a closely watched case that could impact employees' use of social media, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the Stop & Shop grocery chain's social media policy is "impermissibly vague, overbroad and violated Section 7 rights of employees" that protects the right to organize and bargain.

The Union represents 5,500 Stop & Shop employees at 45 stores in and around New York City. The petition alleges that Stop & Shop enacted the social media policy without consulting the union, a violation of collective bargaining rights, while forbidding employees from disclosing confidential information (such as salaries) on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The policy also prohibits employees from discrediting the store's practices or products on their personal social media posts. Furthermore, according to legal counsel for the Union, Patricia McConnell of Meyer Suozzi English & Klein, the policy requires employees to report colleagues’ violations whereby workers face disciplinary action — up to and including termination.Continue reading...

Hyatt workers today returned to work, following a week-long strike that saw local religious leaders join the picket line in a show of solidarity.

Thousands of Hyatt workers in Chicago (with two hotels), Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu walked off the job in a strike that ended at midnight last night, part of an "ongoing demonstration against the hotel chain, which hasn’t renegotiated contracts since Aug. 31, 2009 and has racked up 15 OSHA citations," as the Huffington Post reports.

Contract renewal talks on a new deal for housekeepers, bell staff, and restaurant and banquet workers have apparently did not go well after union workers hit the picket lines last week, “after a series of one-day work stoppages,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.Continue reading...

Welcome to the kinder, gentler — okay, docile — United Auto Workers union. The one that is making a genteel agreement with the Big Three US automakers to extend their contract talks beyond tonight's initial deadline because, well, they have more to talk about before they sign on the dotted lline.

UAW founding icon Walter Reuther might be rolling over in his grave about today's quiescence by the once-proud institution. But a cooperative stance is what the UAW is all about these days.

For one thing, they are under a no-strike obligation when it comes to General Motors and Chrysler because of the terms of the federal bailouts; and the union's long-evolving stance of cooperation with Ford likely would have precluded a strike this fall anyway. There's also the fact that today, more than ever in its history, the fate of the UAW and its members is tied to the fates of the Big Three.Continue reading...

Verizon may have retired its "Can you hear me now?" campaign earlier this year, but some 45,000 Verizon workers of its 83,000 employees nationwide have gone on strike in the hopes the company is still listening.

The stalemate continues between the union and the New York City-based company, according to Bloomberg.

The company’s first strike in 11 years “may delay service calls and disrupt installations for phone and Web service,” according to Bloomberg, but Verizon has 40,000 managers and contractors in its back pocket that it has trained to take the positions of strikers, who make up about a quarter of the company’s employees and represent Verizon’s decreasing land-line business.

“It is clear that some of the existing contract provisions, negotiated initially when Verizon was under far less competitive pressure, are not in line with the economic realities of business today,” said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, according to Bloomberg. “In fact, under these contracts, benefit costs have risen consistently even as the wireline business has shrunk.”Continue reading...

United Auto Workers President Bob King faced several audiences when his union opened a three-day convention in Detroit today to finalize its strategy for new-contract talks with the Big Three US automakers.

His opening speech to the UAW rank-and-file tried to convince them that the union will fight for their interest in restoration of wage and benefit cuts they sustained during the Great Recession and federal takeover of General Motors and Chrysler.

"The more jobs we can bring back under the umbrella of the collective agreements … the more power we have," he told attendees during a speech in which he also took aim at Ford CEO Alan Mulally's compensation.

“When Alan Mulally can make over $50 million in a bonus, temporary workers have a right to a decent job and benefits,” King said.Continue reading...