Stop & Shop strike supported by Warren, Biden and Buttigieg ends with deal
Stop & Shop workers and company officials have reached a tentative agreement that ends a near-two week strike at 240 stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The action attracted support from presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg and former vice-president Joe Biden, as well as the New England Jewish community, whose Passover shopping was affected.
One rabbi said the way the company treated its workers was “particularly egregious” during a holiday about “celebrating freedom from slavery”.
The three-year agreement includes wage increases for all associates and maintains healthcare coverage, according to news releases from both parties. It is subject to ratification votes by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union local groups, the company said.
“Our associates’ top priority will be restocking our stores so we can return to taking care of our customers and communities and providing them with the service they deserve,” the company said. “We deeply appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers during this time, and we look forward to welcoming them back to Stop & Shop.”
The UFCW said “today is a powerful victory for the 31,000 hardworking men and women of Stop & Shop who courageously stood up to fight for what all New Englanders want”.
It said workers went on strike from 11 April to protest the company’s proposed cuts to healthcare, take-home pay and other benefits.
“Under this proposed contract, our members will be able to focus on continuing to help customers in our communities enjoy the best shopping experience possible and to keep Stop & Shop the number one grocery store in New England,” the union said.
“The agreement preserves healthcare and retirement benefits, provides wage increases, and maintains timeand-a-half pay on Sunday for current members.”
The company limited its offerings amid the strikes, affecting Passover shopping. A number of rabbis in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode
Island advised their congregations not to cross picket lines.
“The food that you’re buying is the product of oppressed labor and that’s not kosher,” Rabbi Barbara Penzner, of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah, a reconstructionist synagogue in Boston, said last week. “Especially during Passover, when we’re celebrating freedom from slavery, that’s particularly egregious.”
Stop & Shop is a subsidiary of Dutch giant Ahold Delhaize, with 415 stores across the US north-east. Workers in New York and New Jersey were not on strike.
Multiple public figures came out in support of the workers. Warren, a Massachusetts senator, stood on a picket line on 12 April in Somerville, saying she would fight for the “dignity of working people”. Biden, who is expected to enter the Democratic presidential race shortly, met workers outside a store in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota visited stores in support of the workers as well.
Connecticut Lt Gov Susan Bysiewicz and Senator Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, supported Stop & Shop employees in their state.
A former NHL player for the Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche, defenseman Ray Bourque, was seen crossing a picket line to shop at a Massachusetts store. Bourque apologized and promised to walk the picket line in solidarity once a medical issue was resolved.