Labor & Employment

If any retail CEO is going to endorse a candidate in this year’s presidential race, Howard Schultz would certainly rank at the top of the list.  

A coalition of New York-based advocates have launched a national campaign to press large retailers, restaurant chains and other companies to end on-call and last-minute scheduling.   The effort comes in the wake of recent agreements by several retailers with New York's attorney general to end the practice in that state, the Associated Press reported.  

Johnson Controls has completed its merger with Tyco.   By uniting Johnson Controls, a leading provider of building efficiency solutions with Tyco, a leading provider of fire and security solutions, the new company is positioned as a leader in products, technologies and integrated solutions for the buildings and energy sectors.   

Photo: Sonya Gafsi Oblisk    Whole Foods Market named the former VP of marketing for Walmart’s Sam’s Club division as global VP of marketing.  

Aeropostale Inc. will live to see another day after all.    A consortium, including Simon Property Group Inc. General Growth Properties Inc. and Authentic Brands Group, won the bankruptcy auction for Aeropostale Inc. The group, which also includes liquidators Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC and Hilco Merchant Resources LLC,  plans to keep at least 229 of the teen retailer’s stores up and running along with Aeropostale's e-commerce business and  international licensing business.   

The offices of Chain Store Age will be closed for the Labor Day holiday weekend. We will resume publishing on Sept. 6. The CSA team wishes you and your family a happy and safe holiday.    

To uphold its reputation of providing the fastest possible delivery to its shoppers, Amazon is preparing to open a new fulfillment center in Monee, Ill. This is the third warehouse planned for the suburbs of Chicago.   The 850,000-plus-sq.-ft. facility will facilitate the picking, packing and shipping of small items, such as books, electronics and consumer goods.  

Walmart is eliminating about 7,000 back-office positions at its U.S. stores, with the majority of the cuts in the accounting and invoicing areas.     The move, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, follows a test earlier this summer at 500 stores in the West to cut three administrative accounting and invoicing jobs at each store.    

Aeropostale may still live to see another day thanks to a last-minute bid.   In a development that no one saw coming, a consortium of landlords, liquidators and others joined together to make a $243.3 million offer to save 229 Aeropostale stores, Fortune reported. The group includes General Group Properties, Simon Property Group, Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, Hilco Merchant Resources, and Authentic Brands Group.  

This week, 10,000 current and former Chipotle employees filed a class-action lawsuit claiming back wages, working off the clock and various labor violations. The suit should finally be the wake-up call necessary to get c-suite executives at restaurant, retail, hotel & lodging, convenience stores and other labor-intensive industries to take the issue seriously because the Chipotle case may be the tip of the iceberg.