Stop & Shop talks resume under strike threat
by News Channel 8's Kent Pierce
Posted Feb. 20, 2007
Updated 6:20 PM

(East Haven-WTNH) _ So far, no deal for the thousands of Stop & Shop employees working without a contract. Thursday is the deadline and with a huge walkout looming News Channel 8 went undercover to find out what workers on the job have to say.

In the East Haven store and dozens like it workers and managers are wondering what will happen this Thursday. Right now, the company and the union are back at the bargaining table, and workers we spoke to say they're ready to walk if management doesn't give them what they want.

We sent a News Channel 8 intern with a hidden camera into one store to get a sense of the mood of workers, and they say they're not afraid to walk off the job.

"We might actually end up striking," said one male employee. "They delayed talks. We're safe until at least Thursday, I think. Thursday is the first day we might go. But neither side is budging, so we actually might."

"This would be one of the largest walkouts that we've seen in this area in a number of years," Quinnipiac University Profesor David Cadden said.
 
Cadden, a labor expert, says the main issue is about health care. Stop & Shop employees have never had to pay premiums. The company wants that to change.

"This is going to be one of the last calls in terms of unions trying to preserve the notion of the empoyer picking up the entire cost of health care," Cadden said.

Health care costs are on the minds of all the workers.

"They want us to pay for just about everything," a female employee told the News Channel 8 intern.
"What are you going to do?"
"We walk if we don't get what we want."

If they do walk it will affect not only 43,000 employees, but also vendors who deliver to the stores.

"We're private and the only way I make any money is on commission, so if I don't go to the stores, I don't make no money, and they want us to honor it, too," the unidentified vendor said.

But will customers honor the picket lines?
 
"A lot of customers are saying they won't, but some of them probably will anyway," the male employee said.

Professor Cadden is not so sure. "If they do go out on strike, it would be such a loss of customers to their competitors that they make not be able to hold out that long - so this is a real war of attrition."

A Stop & Shop spokeswoman says the company has put a fair offer on the table one with considerable pay increases. She says negotiations are ongoing and scheduled through thursday.

The union's concerns include pay increases and pensions as well as health care costs