On Day 6, Strikers’ Stress Mounts

Personal stories from the picket line. 

Those stories of mounting stress emerged on day six of the Stop & Shop workers’ strike on picket lines outside the Whalley and Amity Road stores. Some 31,000 New England-wide have gone on strike against the supermarket chain, under the banner of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.

Interviewed on the picket lines at the two New Haven locations Tuesday, workers said they are beginning to worry about rent payments. They are beginning to apply for unemployment insurance and maybe food stamps. Some are ruing episodes of snapping at their relatives more than they should, and in general they are beginning to feel the stresses of a strike, the first one ever, at a company that most employees did not expect and have not planned for.

Strikers said they are seeking to halt pension and health care rollbacks, bonuses rather than salary increases and and the elimination of time-and-a-half pay on Sundays. Then there is also the slow phase-out of human workers with automated services like Marty, the new in-store roving robot. Management says it’s offering a pay increase and still offering health and pension benefits that exceed industry averages. Management says it’s offering a pay increase and still offering health and pension benefits that exceed industry averages. (More on its position here.)

Federal mediators are speaking with both sides. Rumors are flying, with hopes the strike will be settled this week.

If it isn’t, union benefits of $100 a week for each employee who puts in at least six hours a day on the picket line will begin to kick in next week, said Denise Tartaglia, the strike captain at the closed Whalley Avenue store.

That’s less than a quarter of the $480 a week that pharmacy technician Rosario Manganello, a 19-year veteran at the Amity Stop & Shop, has been bringing in.

He also has $1,000 in unpaid medical bills, from a rear-end accident that has messed up his neck, he said. That’ll have wait until he returns to work, he said. The $100 that the union might provide will barely do more than fill up his gas tank to get to and from work from his home in Ansonia where he lives with his mom, he claimed.

Single Mom Appreciates The Donuts

Debbie Long started working at the Amity Stop & Shop when she was 16 years old. She’s the person you see at the customer service desk. And the place has truly become a family for her. 

But Long also has her own family at home — three kids ages 23, 25, and 28. With the loss of her husband a year ago, she relies now on a single paycheck. College and graduate school loans need to be paid off

As a result of her new situation, she said, ​“We’re all trying to help each other.

“You wake up, you have your bills, your mortgage, [and you wonder] how can this go on?”

“Right now I have some money from my husband’s passing,” Long added. ​“But that’s going to my mortgage and house taxes.”

She then joked that she is eating a lot of donuts. Concerned customers have been bringing the Amity strikers lots of donuts, pizza, and other stuff.

“I’m missing my job, my customers,” she said.

Then both Long and supervisor Maggie Speer told stories of pizza, mugs of coffee, and hugs from sympathetic customers aplenty. If there’s a silver lining to the strike thus far, it is demonstrations of appreciation, usually felt, but not overt, from the customers toward the S & S staff.

“On Edge,” Rosario Snaps At Mom

Rosario Manganello, age 35, has been at Stop & Shop for 19 years and likes his job as a pharmacy technician a lot. ​“It’s my first and only job,” he said.

He had been part time for 17 years and has been full time for just two and a half. In addition to medical bills from a recent accident — insurance paid for a lot of it, but $1,000 is his responsibility — he has living expenses for himself and his mom with whom he share a house in Ansonia. His mom, who works in hospital housekeeping part time, brings in only $150 a week. The lion’s share of the expenses fall on him.

There is some real anxiety under his roof, he said, but he’s managing

“My mother will sometimes ask, ​‘How’s it going’ and I’ll snap at her,’” he recalled. ​“But she understands I’m on edge.”

Manganello’s anxiety extends to a gloomy prediction about the strike: ​“If the strike goes on for long, they’ll fire us. I do believe they are trying to dismember the union.”

He too dearly wanted to get back to work, but not only for the financial relief he said. ​“We’re in the service business. I miss being able to help customers.”

St. Clair: Holding Off On Living Room Set

Jamel St. Clair, age 47, has been with Stop & Shop for about the same amount of time as his friend Manganello. He’s a part-time porter and lives in West Haven with his wife and a son and daughter.

They all pitch in contributing to the $1,300 rent, with his wife, who works as a secretary at University of Connecticut, bringing in the largest income.

The kids, he said, are understanding of St. Clair’s situation with the strike, as well as the varying hours before; some weeks he has given 16 hours, some 20, and that changes with the schedule every two weeks. He wishes the strike were over and he had more hours, he said, but that’s not up to him.

For now the family is getting by forgoing some new purchases. The family has its eyes on a new living room set as the old one is worn out. The ballpark figure is $2,400. Not doable while the strike continues.

St. Clair said his salary is $12.50 an hour so that he brings home about $350 a week after taxes.

“I have my moments of stress,” St. Clair said, in part because he doesn’t like the idleness of the picket line. ​“I like to work, not be out on the picket line. And I like to get a decent paycheck. The $100can’t get me to work and pay for things.”

The employees in Amity are walking the picket line roughly the same hours and schedule they work. St. Clair said he plans to apply for unemployment insurance. Some of his fellow workers told him they had already, and he intended to follow suit, this day.

And, he reported, he will apply for food stamps.

“I want to work and help pay bills and do what I got to do as a man,” he added.

Rich Paul: Staying Polite

“Most of us live paycheck to paycheck,” said Rich Paul, who also started at Stop and Shop when he was 16 and now has clocked 48 years on the job. The job and the company have been good enough for him to raise his two kids and three grands.

He brought one of those grandchildren the other day to the strike line.

“I wanted to show him what a strike is” and how it affects people, and both sides, he said.

“I explained how nobody wins in a strike,” he said, describing the whole experience as ​“emotional and exhausting.”

From Paul’s long perspective, except for a one-day walkout back in 1987, there has never been a strike at Stop & Shop. ​“So this has been a huge shock,” he said.

He said his longevity and that of so many others derives in part from union members getting along well with the managers, and, of course, with the customers, like June Amini, who have been bringing coffee, donuts, and pizza by the boxful.

In some instances customers come by with gift certificates and even cash to buy food for the strikers, he said.

Paul said that the strikers are taking pains to be polite to customers, even those few who walk by them, as well as to management, their pals still inside the store.

“We know we have to work together [after the strike]. Let’s open the doors and get some fresh produce in there,” he said.

Christianna Libero: 2 Months From 401(k)

West Havener Christianna Libero, age 37, is a full-time bake shop employee at the Whalley store. She has been doing it for her entire adult life, for 18 years. She’s also the primary breadwinner for her four kids, ages 18, 17, 12, and 9.

She brings in from $2,800 to $3,000 a month. The rent is $1,400, with her husband contributing what he can through doing odd jobs, she said. So far they’re OK in no small part because Libero had a back-up plan in place.

“I set aside a little from my 401(k)” — about two months worth for the major expenses, she said. ​“After that we’ll struggle. I’ve also applied for unemployment, just in case.”

She said her older kids like to help out — one of the girls sells clothing on line — and they’ll do more if necessary.

“You have to go with the punches. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” she reflected.

Curvan Foster: BJ’s Back-Up Plan

Curvan Foster, 22, helps with carts and similar tasks at the store. This is the first non-seasonal job he has held, he’s said.

He and his fiancee Chastity Jackson, whom he met at the store, now live with his mom. The young couple want their own place, so that second income — she now works in education at a nearby day care — is critical.

“I like working here,” Foster said. ​“People are nice and you can do a lot of stuff in a short time. This is my first permanent job. This is a big step for me. So I want the strike to end soon. I really want to get back to work.”

Just in case he also reported that he recently filled out an application for a job at BJs. ​“That’s my back-up.”