Thirty-one thousand Stop & Shop workers went on strike in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island and beat back company cuts to health care, pensions, and wages. The work stoppage carried out by unionized employees of the grocery store chain shut 240 stores. The scale of the strike rivals that of the West Virginia teachers’ strike last year and is the largest private sector strike in the entire U.S. in three years. Stop & Shop workers are organized with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
Cashiers, stockers, bakers, deli clerks, butchers and others walked off the job on April 11, after the company presented a “final offer” in contract negotiations which included higher health care premiums and deductible, and replacing proposed pay raises with bonuses. The company intended to cut pensions and roll back overtime pay.
Employees considered this a slap in the face when the grocery chain’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, is worth $44 billion; they have also saved millions over the past couple years because of Trump’s corporate tax breaks.
One associate, who was picketing outside a Stop & Shop in Middletown, Connecticut said, “They’re a billion-dollar company because of us. We’re out here striking and protesting to show what’s fair and what’s right.”
Many Stop & Shop shoppers have shown solidarity by boycotting the stores that have remained open during the strike. Some posted to Twitter and other social media sites. Twitter user, Hester Prynne, wrote, “#Solidarity well done. I’ve never crossed a picket line, I’m not about to start now!” On the same platform, a shopper by the name of Julias, said, “Good for you. All of you. Our country is moving backwards in many ways. I work in an entirely different industry, but like most, ours is putting profit before employees. We are stressed, overworked and fed up.”