Stop & Shop, UFCW Go to Mediation

March 11, 2016
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel 

Providence, RI – Contract talks between the Stop & Shop supermarket chain and five United Food and Commercial Workers locals resume this week in Providence, Rhode Island, guided by federal mediators.

“They hope to avoid a complete breakdown in negotiations and reach a settlement, as we all do,” UFCW Local 1459 President Daniel P. Clifford said of the mediators. The five locals represent 35,000 Stop & Shop workers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Their contract expired at the end of February, and management is seeking to cut benefits and hire new workers at lower wages, the union says. “Stop & Shop is trying to make new and future workers second-class citizens in our stores,” said Taunette Greene, a member of Local 1459 in Springfield, Mass. “I’ve been very proud to work for Stop & Shop for 44 years, and I want new workers in my store to have that same opportunity.” Local 1445, which represents workers in the Boston area, has authorized a strike, but Local 1459 has not. Read more