2 Unions Donate To Stop & Shop Strike Fund

VERNON/FARMINGTON, CT — As union workers at Connecticut Stop & Shop supermarkets embarked on Day 6 of a work stoppage Tuesday, picket lines found their way to the main roads and a hefty donation found its way to the the United Food and Commercial Workers strike fund.

The money came from two high-profile unions — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employess and the America Federation of Teachers Connecticut — and totaled $5,000 (split evenly), a AFSCME steward said Tuesday. The presentation was made at the Hamden Stop & Shop by AFT President Jan Hochadel and AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Jody Barr.

"We are proud to stand with the 31,000 members of UFCW on strike across New England," said Hochadel, referring to the total impact of the strike in the Northeast. "They deserve to maintain what they’ve worked so hard to achieve — a middle-class life for their families."

Barr said it's what unions do.

"Our union members stand behind them because we recognize that we are in this together," he said.

Striking workers were visible on at least three main roads from the weekend into Tuesday on Route 4 in Farmington, on East Middle Turnpike in Manchester and on Route 83 in Vernon.

David Nardi, a shop steward and executive board member of the UFCW's Local 371, said in Farmington, "We've had no problems at this store, we have 100 percent support from the employees ... They put out there that they're giving us raises and helping us with our health benefits, but it's not true. We're going to fight until we get a good contract and get back in these stores."

No striking worker was forced to the curb in Farmington (and Vernon as well, workers said), but the reasoning was party for visibility, Nardi said.

Stop & Shop workers in New England and have been in negotiations with the supermarket chain since Jan. 14 and the current contract expired on Feb. 23. Members of UFCW Locals 1459, 328, and 919 voted in favor of a strike authorization on Sunday, March 10, joining Locals 1445 and 371, whose members had already held similar votes.

Union officials have cited wage increases, no pay cuts, pensions and health benefits as defining issues and a worker on the picket line in Vernon said quietly that one sticking point has been maintaining the current the level of health care.

In a statement released last week, Stop & Shop officials said those issues have been addressed with "a good and reasonable offer to our union locals."

Said the union's Nardi of the public support, "They know our faces, we've served them for years and they're with us. It's more than a grocery store ... It's like a family."

He said very few people were going into the Farmington store, and there has been minimal derision shown to the strikers.

That also seemed to be the case in Vernon, where workers peacefully co-existed with those who needed to go inside for pharmacy purposes and those honking their horns while driving past picket lines and refusing to go inside for groceries.

A short way down Route 83, the Vernon Price Chopper was packed on Tuesday, something that has been the norm since Day 1 of the Stop & Shop strike, a clerk the Chopper said.

The clerk believed that the Vernon store was among the tops in the Price Chopper chain over the past few days in terms of traffic surges since the strike at Stop & Shop.

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Patch Editor Tim Jensen Contributed to this report.