Stop & Shop President issues statement as strike continues, stores limited

Stop & Shop Union workers from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut continued to strike Saturday.

The 30,000+ workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union have been negotiating with Stop & Shop since February 14th.

The union workers continue to garner support from customers and other fellow unions.

Local Stop & Shop locations continue to be open with limited service and self checkout from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.. Calls placed at the Rodman Street location, however, have still gone unanswered. The Citizens banks and pharmacies located inside the markets are separate and continue to operate as usual.

Union workers have issued a list as to why they are striking.

Stop & Shop President Mark McGowan issued the following statement to striking workers Friday night.

“This is a challenging time, but I want you to know that I and the entire Stop & Shop team remain firmly committed to getting a fair new contract in place for all of our associates in New England. Our team is standing by and remains ready to continue negotiations anytime. We hope that the UFCW local unions return to the table to reach a fair and responsible contract now.”

“As a 28-year veteran of Stop & Shop, I want you to know how much I care about our associates. I stand behind the comprehensive offer we have placed on the table. Our offer provides pay increases for all associates, excellent health coverage with deductibles that would not change, increased contributions to the employee pension plans and no changes in paid time off or holidays for current associates.”

“Importantly, the offer also maintains a responsible balance in rewarding our associates, protecting jobs and serving our customers in a dramatically changing, mostly non-union environment. Stop & Shop has been an industry and community leader for more than 100 years, and we have every intention of remaining so for many years to come.”

“We want to get back to bargaining now on a new contract. We all want to focus again on doing what we do best — taking care of our customers. Our associates and the communities we serve deserve nothing less.”

The company contends that several of the claims leveled by the union are incorrect and issued several fact sheets based on the individual union (5 unions are part of the strike).

The company issued fact sheets can be found here.