Labor & Employment

Bentonville, Ark. -- Sam's Club will open its newest club at 460 S. Weber Road in Romeoville, Ill., on Oct. 3. The Romeoville club will become the 21st Sam's Club in the Chicago area.

Rochester, N.Y. - Teamsters Local 118 members on Monday overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer from Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. that would eliminate the pensions of more than 900 Rochester employees and not provide health care for their spouses. Local 118 will immediately request the participation of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to settle the outstanding contract.

New York -- Steven Newman, CEO of Loehmann’s, will appear on CBS's popular television show, "Undercover Boss," on Friday, Oct. 4 (8 p.m.-9 p.m., ET/PT).

The executive of the original off-price retail chain, with 39 stores in 11 states, went undercover in a few stores around the country in a variety of roles, including order processing at the Loehmann's distribution center, visual merchandising, personal shopper, and sales associate.
 

SMS Assist, a leading technology-driven facilities maintenance and management company, has appointed Geoffrey Wigner as its EVP of facilities.

Wigner previously served as senior director of store services for Dollar General, where he managed more than $500 million in capital and expense budgets while directing major projects affecting more than 10,000 stores. Wigner helped the nationwide retailer open 625 new stores and renovate 525 others in fiscal year 2011. 

New York – At least three law firms and a settlement claims filing service have filed class action suits  on behalf of purchasers of Francesca's Holdings Corporation common stock during the period between March 20, 2013 and September 3, 2013. Suits filed by law firms Morgan & Morgan, Federman & Sherman, and Ryan and Maniskas, LLP, as well as by The Shareholders Foundation, Inc., in the District Court for the Southern District of New York allege violations of federal securities laws in regard to poor second quarter financial results released on Sept.

Amazon is getting ready for the holiday shopping rush and creating more than 70,000 full-time seasonal jobs across its U.S. fulfillment centers to meet an increase in customer demand — a 40% increase over last year’s seasonal hires. 

In 2012, Amazon converted thousands of seasonal employees into regular, full-time roles after the holidays, and expects to do the same this year. On average, seasonal employees earn 94% of Amazon fulfillment center employee starting wages and are eligible for health care benefits.

Plano, Texas – Financial woes continue to plague embattled J.C. Penney Company as hedge fund Perry Capital cut its stake in the retailer by nearly half, selling nine million shares of Penney stock last week.

Chicago -- SMS Assist announced it has appointed Geoffrey Wigner as executive VP of facilities for the Chicago-based technology-driven facilities maintenance and management company.