New England Stop & Shop Workers Stand up for Good Jobs

Who: 43,000 Stop & Shop workers and UFCW members in New England represented by  UFCW Locals 919, 1445, 1459, 371, and 328.

What: Workers are currently in bargaining with Stop & Shop, a grocery company owned by Dutch company Royal Ahold.  Their contract has expired, and a strike is possible at the end of the week if necessary.

When: Members have been bargaining with Stop & Shop since mid-December, and are currently in a new round of talks that began Tuesday Feb. 20 and goes until Thursday, Feb 21st. 

What's At Stake:  Currently, some full time members working at Stop and Shop have affordable, quality health care. However, part time workers do not—so a major focus of negotiations has been improving plans for part timers. The Local Unions involved recognize the company’s concern over the rising cost of health care in the US, and have presented several proposals that would address both workers’ and the company’s concerns. However, Stop and Shop has ignored these proposals, although they’ve offered no solutions to the problem. They’ve declared an impasse in the health care discussions—even though they have no reasonable alternatives to the UFCW members’ proposals. All grocery workers need quality, affordable health care for themselves and their families. Anything less is simply unacceptable.