They won’t be going out on strike this time.
Several local unions with the United Food and Commercial Workers approved new, four-year contracts on Sunday with Stop & Shop, collectively covering roughly 28,000 supermarket workers across 225 store locations, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
The existing contracts are due to expire on Feb. 28, while the new ones will go into effect on March 1. Neither side is sharing the details of the new labor agreements. The supermarket chain and the UFCW said its agreements with locals 328, 371, 919, 1445, and 1459 secure annual wage increases and maintain some of the best health insurance and pension benefits in the industry.
The Quincy-based chain, owned by Dutch conglomerate Ahold Delhaize, avoided the turmoil that engulfed the company in 2019, when roughly 30,000 workers across the three states went on strike for 11 days after the UFCW and Stop & Shop couldn’t reach a contract agreement. At the time, Ahold Delhaize reported that the strike and subsequent recovery cost the chain more than $300 million in lost sales.
The two sides didn’t even get close to a walkout this year. The UFCW announced to members that they had reached a tentative agreement several days ago.
“We are proud of both our position as the region’s largest union employer in the grocery category and the dedication that our associates have to our customers and to each other,” Roger Wheeler, Stop & Shop’s president, said in a statement. “The new contracts deliver wage increases and maintain important health and pension benefits, while also supporting a continued multi-faceted investment in our business.”
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.