Walmart to close stores again on Thanksgiving Day
Walmart says it will close its U.S. stores on Thanksgiving for the second consecutive year.
The nation’s largest retailer and biggest private employer said Friday that it wants to give workers time off for all their “hard work and dedication” to the company. It follows the decision by Target Corp., which announced back in January it would be closing its stores again on the annual late-November turkey feast.
“Closing our stores on Thanksgiving Day is one way we’re saying ‘thank you’ to our team,” wrote Dacona Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Walmart U.S., in a corporate blog.
The move shows how the pandemic will have lasting effects on the retail industry’s strategies, even as the health virus ebbs. For almost a decade, Black Friday store shopping had been kicked off with big crowds on the Thursday of Thanksgiving and expanded into Friday. However, last year, given safety concerns, most stores were closed on Thanksgiving.
Walmart, like other stores, successfully pushed more sales online to reduce crowds in its stores. But, even as safety protocols relax, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer apparently believes that not having the Black Friday kickoff on Thanksgiving won’t hurt its business.
Given the clout of Walmart and Target, other major retailers will likely follow their lead again this year.
Baby soothers recalled after four infant deaths
Fisher-Price says it is recalling a model of its baby soothers after the deaths of four infants who were placed on their backs unrestrained in the devices and later found on their stomachs.
In a joint statement with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Fisher-Price said Friday it is recalling its 4-in-1 Rock ‘n Glide Soothers, which are designed to mimic the motion of a baby being rocked in someone’s arms.
The fatalities between April 2019 and February 2020 were a 4-month old from Missouri, a 2-month old from Nevada, a 2-month old from Michigan and an 11-week old from Colorado, according to the statement.
Fisher-Price, a division of El Segundo, California-based Mattel Inc., is also recalling a similar product, the 2-in-1 Soothe ‘n Play Glider, although there were no reported deaths connected to it.
“Inclined products, such as gliders, soothers, rockers and swings are not safe for infant sleep, due to the risk of suffocation,” CPSC Acting Chairman Robert Adler said.
Fisher-Price General Manager Chuck Scothon, said the company is committed to educating parents and caregivers on the safe use of its products, “including the importance of following all warnings and instructions.”
About 120,000 4-in-1 Rock ‘n Glide Soothers and 55,000 2-in-1 Soothe ‘n Play Gliders were sold from January 2014 through December 2020 for about $108. The 2-in-1 Soothe ‘n Play Gliders were sold from November 2018 through May 2021 for about $125.
Meatpackers union rejects Smithfield offer
In a sign of meatpacking workers becoming emboldened by the pandemic’s health threats and economic repercussions, the union at a South Dakota pork processing plant that experienced a bad coronavirus outbreak last year has overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer from Smithfield Foods and will next move to bring the prospect of a strike to the negotiating table.
The Sioux Falls chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said 99% of union members who voted on the new contract offered from Virginia-based Smithfield Foods rejected it. The escalating labor negotiations are a sign of what might be a renewed boldness among workers in the physically demanding meatpacking industry. Through the pandemic, workers have organized around pushes for workplace safety and are now navigating an economy where some slaughterhouses, desperate for employees, have suddenly boosted wages.
Smithfield Foods downplayed the contract rejection, saying it was a “routine” part of negotiations. But the UFCW plans to vote Monday on whether to authorize a walkout. Union leaders said they view striking as a last resort, as they push for for a base wage of $19 an hour to match the rate at a JBS pork plant 70 miles (113 kilometers) away in Worthington, Minnesota.
Slaughterhouse jobs usually offer elevated wages and benefits in exchange for the bloody, back-breaking work on butchering lines. But the wage gap is closing between meatpacking jobs and those at fast-food chains or retail stores, union leaders warned. They said that employees are exhausted after filling voids in the workforce during the pandemic while keeping up with robust demand for meat.
U.S. can’t delay decision about coal land leases
A U.S. judge has rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to delay a lawsuit from several states and environmentalists who are seeking to end lease sales for coal mining on federal lands.
The coal leasing program was temporarily shut down under President Barack Obama because of concerns about climate change, and then revived by the Trump administration. There have been few sales in the years since because the use of coal has plummeted as utilities turn to cleaner-burning fuels.
But environmentalists want to shut down the program permanently, and have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s attempts to delay a legal challenge pending before U.S. District Brian Morris in Montana.
Morris issued an order late Thursday denying the Biden administration’s attempt to delay the case for another three months, after already being granted a two-month extension in March.
Morris said lease applications are pending for thousands of acres of land holding at least 1 billion tons of coal, and the plaintiffs in the case face potential damage if their challenge to the program is stalled by the administration.