First Stop & Shop Union Local Ratifies New Contract

Stop and Shop workers on strike stand outside of the Stop and Shop on Harvard Street in Brookline, Massachusetts on April 11, 2019.

Anna Kusmer is a radio producer for WGBH Radio and a journalist based in Boston. She previously worked at KQED in San Francisco. She is also a freelance science and health writer with stories appearing in PBS, NPR, Rewire.News and Atlas Obscura, among other places.

April 24, 2019

The first of five New England locals has ratified a new contract with the Stop & Shop supermarket chain.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445 have agreed to a three-year contract that includes wage increases for all workers and preserves healthcare and pension benefits for eligible employees.

Union workers approved the contract unanimously on Wednesday evening, three days after ending an 11-day strike on Easter Sunday. The work stoppage included 31,000 employees and 246 stores across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“Everybody’s happy for the strike to end,” UFCW local 1445 organizer Miguel Vasquez told WGBH News on Sunday night when a tentative agreement was reached. “It was a win for the union.”

Stop & Shop's parent company Ahold Delhaize says the strike cost them an estimated $100 million.

“I know that both Stop & Shop management and its associates are proud to welcome customers back and look forward to taking care of them every day,” said Frans Muller, CEO of Ahold Delhaize in a statement.

The four remaining UFCW locals will vote on their new contract in the coming days, with the last vote happening on May 1.