By JANICE PODSADA
The Hartford Courant

Workers voted Sunday to accept Stop & Shop Supermarket Co.'s new three-year contract proposal after union officials recommended its approval, ending weeks of negotiations and the threat of a strike by 43,000 employees.

All five locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in New England ratified the contract Sunday at union meetings held in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

"After many months of difficult negotiations, we were able to secure a fair and improved contract settlement," said Mark Espinosa, president of UFCW Local 919, which is based in Farmington.

Union leaders and company officials said they were relieved that a strike had been averted. Last month, all five locals authorized a strike if talks broke down. But union leaders said their persistence at the bargaining table paid off.

"By continuing the negotiations and not striking, we were able to go forward," said Brian Petronella, president of UFCW Local 371, based in Westport. "If we had gone on strike, we wouldn't have been able to get this kind of agreement. We hung in there."

Talks revolved around wages and retirement benefits, but a contentious debate over health care coverage proved to be the sticking point in recent weeks, union leaders said.

Ultimately, both sides agreed to concessions to settle health care issues, which affected full-time and part-time employees. The latter make up 80 percent of the company's workforce.

"The company's goal during negotiations was to reach a competitive agreement that would allow Stop & Shop to remain the leading supermarket in the marketplace," said Robert Keane, a spokesman for Stop & Shop, which is owned by the Dutch conglomerate Royal Ahold NV and is based in Quincy, Mass. "We believe this new contract will meet that goal and provide significantly improved benefits and wages."

Under the new contract, Stop & Shop will no longer pay 100 percent of full-time employees' health care premiums.

Next year, full-time workers will pay for a portion of their health care premiums, though not until March 2008. At that point, the rate for individuals will be $5 a week; for a spouse and one child, $10 a week; and for a family, $15 a week, Petronella said.

Petronella described those paycheck deductions as significantly less than what the company initially demanded. At the start of negotiations, Petronella said, Stop & Shop wanted full-time workers to begin paying up to $28 a week toward their health care premiums.

In a nod to part-time workers, Stop & Shop agreed to continue to pay for 100 percent of their health care premiums, Petronella said.

The new contract also reduces the eligibility period that new part-time employees - those working between 15 and 35 hours a week - must wait before they're eligible to receive health care benefits. New part-time employees can now receive coverage after one year's employment instead of two. However, current part-time workers must still wait two years before receiving those benefits, Petronella said.

"It's a great contract they gave us," said Keith Sirois, a full-time worker at the Super Stop & Shop in Middletown. "They gave the part-timers what we wanted for them," Sirois said, referring to the 12 months the union was able to shave off the waiting period.

The new contract also provides full-time employees with a $25-a-week pay increase retroactive to Feb. 17. In 2008 and 2009, full-time employees will receive annual raises of $20 a week.

Part-time workers will receive a 35-cents -an-hour increase retroactive to Feb. 17. Next year and the year following they will receive two additional 35-cents -an-hour pay increases, for a total of $1.05 in hourly rate increases over the period of the three-year contract, Petronella said.

In Connecticut, 3,000 members of UFCW Local 919 gathered Sunday morning at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell and voted overwhelmingly to ratify the new contract. Another 1,000 members of Local 371 met at 9 a.m. Sunday at the Klein Auditorium in Bridgeport and also gave their unanimous approval, Petronella said.

Last month, while negotiations were going on, Stop & Shop implied in newspaper ads that it couldn't agree to union demands and remain competitive. The company describes itself as the only predominantly unionized supermarket chain operating in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. However, Stop & Shop enjoys an estimated 45 percent share of Connecticut's retail market sales, making it the state's dominant grocery chain, according to Ronald Cotterill, an economics professor at the University of Connecticut.

Negotiations resumed Thursday after a two-day break. By Friday evening, a strike seemed imminent, judging by the bleak message that union leaders had posted on their websites saying that "no progress" had been made.

The apparent turnaround in negotiations occurred during a marathon session that lasted from Friday night until 7 p.m. Saturday, Petronella said.

Union leaders praised its membership for standing firm.

"Stop & Shop tried to play hard ball with us. But our members stood strong and so instead of losing significant benefits, we came out on top," said Scott L. Macey, president of UFCW Local 1459, based in Springfield.