Hundreds of New England Stop & Shop Stores Close in Result of Strike

Popular grocery giant, Stop & Shop, was forced to close for hours as thousands of workers walked out in a strike last Thursday, protesting cuts on healthcare and pension benefits.

31,000 employees who are members of the United Food & Commercial Workers union walked out of more than 240 stores across Connecticut.

As well as Massachusetts and Rhode Island on Thursday afternoon.

Employees left the stores or picketed outside, forcing the chain to close hundreds of locations in response to the lack of workers in their stores.

The strike continued into Friday, most reopening Friday morning with temporary replacement workers, a representative of Stop & Shop released.

“Given that negotiations with the assistance of the federal mediators are continuing, we are disappointed that the UFCW chose to order a work stoppage in an attempt to disrupt service at our stores,” the retailer said in a statement.

“Stop & Shop has contingency plans in place to minimize disruption.”

Stop & Shop’s proposed contract would increase healthcare premiums by hundreds of dollars, with full-time employees paying an estimated $893 over three years and reduce monthly pension benefits for many newly hired employees, according to the UFCW.

“Instead of a contract that recognizes the value and hard work that our members provide every day, Stop & Shop has only proposed drastic and unreasonable cuts to healthcare benefits and take-home pay.

While replacing real customer service with more serve-yourself checkout machines,” representatives of the local UFCW unions said in a statement.

Some customers used social media to express their reactions to the strike, one-person tweeting, “Stop and Shop called their strike when I was in the middle of shopping…so I ditched my cart and left. Take care of your people and you’ll get my money.”

The grocery chain released a statement saying that its employees earn some of the highest wages as well as receive the best benefits in the grocery industry.

The company said it needed to cut costs because stores such as Walmart, Whole Foods and Costco were not unionized and had lower labor costs.

Numerous politicians spoke out in support of the Stop & Shop workers and UFCW, “@Stopandshop, a multibillion-dollar company, wants to drastically cut health care for 31,000 workers.

I stand with @UFCW workers in their fight to protect health care and workers’ rights,” Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted.

Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted: “31k New England @StopandShop workers just went on strike for a contract that provides fair wages, good benefits, and secure retirement.

I stand in solidarity with @UFCW for these hard-working families to be treated with the dignity & respect they deserve.”