We should welcome workers' 'powerful victory' in the Stop & Shop strike

[Sherman A1]

On Sunday evening, in what it called a “powerful victory,” the United Food & Commercial workers union (UFCW) reached a tentative agreement with Stop & Shop management to end a strike by 31,000 workers in over 240 grocery stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, which began April 11. In hindsight, the 11-day strike, the largest retail strike in the U.S. since 2003, could turn out to be one of the most important work stoppages of the past few decades.

The workers struck to resist demands from the company – which is owned by Dutch giant, Royal Ahold Delhaize – for sweeping reductions in health care and pension benefits and reduced pay for Sunday work. But, according to the union, under Sunday’s three-year settlement, existing health care and pension plans and time-and-a-half for Sunday work are maintained.

Stop & Shop demands for health care and pension concessions from some of its lowest paid workers were not borne out of financial necessity. Ahold Delhaize is highly profitable in the United States. In 2018, it generated sales of $44 billion from all its U.S. food businesses (the company also owns the Food Lion, Giant, and Hannaford supermarket chains, and the Peapod grocery delivery service), with Stop & Shop supermarkets contributing about $8 billion of that total. The U.S. accounts for approximately two-thirds of the Dutch multinationals overall revenues. Rather, the company was seeking to claw back hard won worker benefits in order to be more like its non-union, low road rivals.

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/labor/440271-we-should-welcome-workers-powerful-victory-in-the-stop-shop-strike?

[corbettkroehler]

1. Textbook Example Of The Importance Of Organized Labor

Clearly, although Royal Ahold Delhaize may be Dutch on paper, its senior leadership is comprised of soulless, rapacious capitalists for whom too much never feels like enough.