Stop & Shop strikers ‘hanging tough’

The day was gray but the mood was determined as Stop & Shop union workers kept up the picket line Saturday during the 10th day of the longest strike in the grocery giant’s history.

“We’re hanging tough,” said John Lupoli, union steward for Local 919 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

Lupoli said he had stopped at stores in Hamden, North Haven and Wallingford and found the same mood there, as strikers walked the picket line for the tenth day.

Equipped with raincoats and slickers to combat the scattered downpours, workers at the Amity Stop & Shop in New Haven chatted and hugged, working to keep the mood upbeat as the worry about paying bills increased. The store was virtually empty, though a customer occasionally emerged.

“Everyone has something they are worried about,” Lupoli said, pointing out that health benefits will end at different times

for different locals, and people may have a hard time paying for medications they need. “Everyone has something on their plates that they are concerned with. There are a vast number of things people are concerned about.”

Lupoli said that while his children are adults and his wife works full-time, he knows that many Stop & Shop employees have to work two jobs to make ends meet. Some are “worried about how they are going to feed their children” even with unemployment benefits.

“Most of America lives paycheck to paycheck,” he said.

“I’m ready to go back to work,” said longtime Stop & Shop worker Ruth Cherry, who has walked the picket line many times this past week and supported co-workers with encouraging words.

Cherry, however, noted Saturday that many workers are “just tired.”

Juliette Sabo, shop steward for Local 919 in Fairfield, said Saturday that the “feeling here is amazing.” While some might think the picket line gets more difficult as time goes on, “that is not the case” there, she said, and parttime and full-time workers are supporting each other.

“I am so proud of all my workers at my store,” she said. “We are stronger every single day. We are united.”

Sabo said customers have always “come first,” and now “customers are not shopping because they are supporting the workers.”

Sabo also said that if a silver lining could be found as the strike wears on, it is that food is being donated to churches and food banks, a process she is helping to facilitate.

“Food is being (donated) in Bridgeport, in Milford, on the flip side we are feeding hungry people.”

The union went on strike April 11. Workers walked out over differences in the company’s contract offer, with concerns centered on health care premiums, pension benefits and wage increases.

Stop & Shop employs more than 31,000 associates throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, including at 92 stores in Connecticut. Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop, a division of Dutch supermarket company Ahold Delhaize, has 415 stores in the Northeast but the strike affects 240 stores in the three states.

In its latest update — posted on the Stop & Shop website Friday — the company said: “Stop & Shop and the five UFCW local unions are continuing negotiations into the evening. We remain focused on reaching fair new agreements that provide marketleading wages, excellent health benefits for eligible associates and increased pension contributions for all of our associates.”

The update Thursday said: “Our primary goal remains to get our associates back to work with a contract that has pay increases for all associates, continued health benefits for eligible associates and increased pension contributions. We remain focused on getting back to fully serving our customers every day.”

Bert Flickinger, managing director of New York City-based Strategic Resource Group, a leading national retail consultant, has estimated that the walkout is costing the grocery chain $2 million per week and may even cause the company to permanently lose a portion of its market share.

The strike drew former Vice President Joe Biden’s support Thursday, support from Connecticut politicians, as well as a visit from National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to the Amity store.

But workers said the support that really gives them strength is coming from customers who have brought coffee, doughnuts, snacks and more.

One older couple has brought pizzas to workers nearly every day, Lupoli said.