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Did anyone win the Stop & Shop strike?

Written by George Anderson

Photos: UFCW

Representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union and management at Stop & Shop announced on Sunday that the parties had reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract, putting to end an 11-day strike that saw 31,000 employees walk off the job at the chain’s 240 stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The strike had a serious effect on Stop & Shop’s revenues with The Boston Globe reporting customer visits dropping by 75 percent during the dispute. Burt Flickinger, managing director of the Strategic Resource Group, told The Day that Stop & Shop lost somewhere between $25 million and $30 million during the strike and will need to spend up to $50 million in marketing to bring back customers who shopped at rival grocery stores over the 11 days. Striking employees went without paychecks during the time they were on the picket line. A UFCW representative told The Day that workers received a $100-a-week strike benefit from the union. The UFCW claimed victory ahead of a vote to ratify the tentative agreement. The union said the strike of the chain, the first in over 20 years, was needed to fight back against proposed cuts in healthcare, take-home pay and other benefits. “The agreement preserves health care and retirement benefits, provides wage increases, and maintains time-and-a-half pay on Sunday for current members,” according to a statement issued by the UFCW. With associates back to work, the grocer and union said that job number one was getting shelves restocked.

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