QUINCY, Mass. — A contract dispute between Teamsters workers and Stop & Shop could result in a strike and the closure of the grocery chain’s Massachusetts-based distribution center.
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.
“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.
Erickson and Mari added, “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.
“Because of our commitment to our union associates, we approached Teamsters Local 25 leadership with a request to identify only a fraction of that annual savings in our new contract,” the spokeswoman explained. “Based on our analysis, we believe it’s possible to achieve these labor savings while still offering significant wage increases and maintaining pension benefits. We believe the savings can be achieved with a transition to a more competitive health plan, which is the same plan that management and other associates at the facility have.”
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.
“This is not a decision we take lightly, and we care deeply about our associates and maintaining our presence in Freetown,” the spokeswoman said. “It is critical that the local collaborates with us on a new agreement that achieves the savings needed to do so.”
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