FREETOWN, Mass. — The feud between Teamsters and Stop & Shop escalated Friday morning as union workers gathered outside the grocery chain’s Massachusetts-based distribution center to protest planned benefits cuts.
“We’re just practicing. So, this is letting the company know what it’s going to look like when we do go out on strike on March 29 when our contract ends,” Teamsters Local 25 business agent Jason Lopes said at the rally. “So, we’re out here to let the company know we’re not going anywhere, and if they continue to act this way we will bring the padlocks ourselves and lock the doors.”
The Quincy-headquartered grocery chain is threatening to subcontract work and close its Freetown distribution center unless Teamsters workers give up their union healthcare plans, according to Teamsters Warehouse Division Director Tom Erickson and President of Teamsters Local 25 Thomas G. Mari.
Early-morning picket lines formed in Freetown as workers arrived for their 5 a.m. shifts, but operations at the facility could soon come to a halt if the chain doesn’t meet the demands of Teamsters.
“Ahold Delhaize — the Dutch-Belgian parent company of Stop & Shop — raked in nearly $94 billion in sales last year, but its greedy, morally bankrupt executives are demanding sacrifices from the very workers who made that success possible,” Erickson and Mari said in a statement. “If Stop & Shop continues down this path, threatening the livelihoods of more than 900 Teamsters, we will take action. We will extend picket lines to every Stop & Shop store in New England and bring the full force of our union to this fight. The Teamsters will never let a foreign-owned corporation bully American workers into accepting substandard health care. Our members will not be intimidated. We will not back down.”
A spokeswoman for the grocery chain said Stop & Shop is in the midst of a “multi-year” strategy that includes efforts to lower prices and improve in-store experience for customers, while also reducing overall costs. By transferring work done in the Freetown distribution center to a third party, Stop & Shop would “achieve millions in savings,” according to the spokeswoman.
“Third-party bids showed we could achieve millions in annual savings by transferring the work done at this distribution center to a third party,” the chain said in an updated statement issued Friday. “Our own analysis showed that we could maintain operations at Freetown at a lower cost by transitioning to a more competitive health plan, while still offering our associates significant wage increases and maintaining pension benefits. The proposed health plan is the same plan that management and other associates at the facility have. We remain ready and willing to bargain and to consider union proposals that achieve our labor savings target.”
Stop & Shop added that it’s “disappointed” that Teamsters Local 25 has not been willing to engage in discussions around proposals that would keep the Freetown facility open.
While a strike looms, Stop & Shop noted that doesn’t anticipate disruptions in product deliveries to stores.
If a new contract that reaches the labor savings needed is not ratified by Friday, Feb. 28, Stop & Shop said it will move forward with an outsourcing agreement and close the facility.
Teamsters is asking the public to consider shopping elsewhere while the contract dispute drags on.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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