Germain Blake, who works in the meat department.
Stop & Shop workers in New Haven and Hamden marched off the job Thursday at 12:40 p.m., joining over 30,000 fellow strikers throughout the region in search of a new contract.
The workers’ union has been in negotiations with the supermarket chain since Jan. 14. Talks have stalled primarily over proposed cuts to medical and pension plans.
“What do we want?” some 150 workers chanted as they streamed out of the Dixwell Avenue Stop & Shop in Hamden.
“A contract!”
“When do we want it?”
“Now!”
The workers belong to Locals 371 and 919 of UFCW. The locals represent 31,000 New England workers.
“I understand that you may be worried about what this means for your family,” the union wrote to members in a confidential memo obtained by WTNH. “Stop & Shop should have never put their hard-working employees in this situation. But it’s important that we all stand together for the better life we’ve earned & deserve.”
“Thirty years I’m with the company. I’m heartbroken,” said one striking worker, who asked that she be referred to as “C.”
“We want to be able to treat our customers how they deserve to be treated, and we can’t with how they’re treating us,” said another worker, who declined to give her name. She said she has been with Stop and Shop for around 38 years, and that it’s not what it used to be.
“We want it for our customers, what Stop and Shop used to be,” she said. “Family. They cared about their employees. They cared about their customers.”
Both long-time employees said that the staff is much smaller than it used to be. Now, they said, the store is usually short-staffed because the company is trying to save money.
Jorge Cabrera, a business representative for Local 919, said workers are striking at 249 New England stores, including 90 in Connecticut with 14,000 workers. He estimated that 150 workers were present at the Hamden store picket.
Workers said they worry most about proposals to cut their medical plans and about the pensions Stop and Shop offers new hires.
One part-time worker said she was worried she would lose her health benefits. “We would lose our dental, our vision, we would lose our pensions, our Sunday pay, which is time and a half.”
According to a press release from United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), Stop and Shop’s latest proposal would require full-time employees to pay on average $893 more, and part-time employees $603 more, “in weekly health care premiums over three years.” It would also reduce pension benefits for new full-time hires by 32 percent, and would cut raises.
Stop & Shop issued a statement saying it has bargained in good faith, offered pay increases, and stands ready to negotiate further.
It said it has made contingency plans for a strike.
Many workers said they hadn’t expected the impasse to come to a strike. The two sides have managed to reach agreement in the past amid strike threats.
Twenty minutes into the picket outside the Hamden Stop & Shop, workers began to make their way over to the parking long entrance on Dixwell Avenue, chanting and holding signs. They stood on either side of the entrance and on the median, crossing the entrance whenever they had a walk signal. As they did, drivers passing on Dixwell honked, showing their support.
One of the chants centered on the new robot Stop & Shop has recently introduced in its markets: “Marty in every store / Pay your humans more!”
That chant captured another piece of what the workers want: It’s not just about medical benefits, pensions, and Sunday and holiday pay, some said. It’s also about preserving dignity.
“It all started with the self-serves,” said “C.” That was when the company began to replace human workers with automated check-out systems and now robots. She said that since then, Stop and Shop has been “implementing more and more technology — more robots and less people,” she said.
A robot named Marty now glides around the store finding spills and notifying workers. C said it doesn’t do too much now, but she predicted that the robot will take over many more functions in the future. (Click here for a recent column by the New Haven Register’s Randall Beach about Marty and the store’s official take on his role.)
As workers sat outside the Hamden store waving away the few customers who ventured up, one joked: “Is Marty on strike?”
“Don’t budge,” another said. “But damn, I’m hungry!”
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro released a statement expressing “solidarity” with the striker.
“This is about basic dignity. UFCW members in Connecticut and across the region help families put food on the table and keep our communities strong,” she wrote.
“In return, they deserve a living wage, healthcare benefits, and retirement security for their hard work — not cuts to their compensation while Stop & Shop posts strong profits quarter after quarter. Many of these workers and their families are living paycheck to paycheck. They work hard every single day, and now they are facing pay and benefit cuts. That is wrong. I urge all parties to negotiate a fair contract that recognizes the dignity of work and the customer service UFCW members provide every single day.”