Day 7 Of Stop & Shop Strike Marked By Numbers Posturing

VERNON, CT — And on the seventh day of the Stop & Shop labor strike, there was no rest from posturing over the numbers. Meanwhile, stores on Wednesday were still offering limited services.

In a website posting Wednesday morning, Stop & Shop officials said, "Our goal remains the same — reaching a fair new agreement and returning our focus to doing what we do best ... taking care of our customers."

The focus on Wednesday's post was on pension-related benefits. Stop and Shop officials said 4 percent of privately employed Americans have "only a defined benefit pension for retirement," and outlines what was on the table:

• No cuts to pension benefits associates already have earned.
• A 20 percent increase in the company’s contributions to the pension fund to keep benefits growing under the funds’ rules at the same rate for current full- and vested part-time associates.
• Increased pension fund contributions are at no cost to associates.

Stop & Shop officials said associate pension benefits are managed by the UFCW pension funds, whose trustees include representatives of the union and employers in the plan.

A day earlier, the focus was on health care, a segment of the negotiations striking workers in Vernon said was paramount in Day 2 of the walkout. According to Stop & Shop officials:

• Stop & Shop would pay at least 92 percent of health premiums for family coverage and at least 88 percent for individual coverage. The federal government pays 72 percent of its employees’ health premiums.
• Associates would pay 9 to 12 percent of individual coverage premiums or 6 to 8 percent of family premiums (depending on the local contract), compared to national averages of 20 percent for individual coverage, 28 percent for families.

• Increases of $2 to $4 per week each year have been proposed.
• Deductibles would not increase or change – $200 to $300 since 2007.
• Limited increases to prescription co-pays.
• Spouses are eligible for health care coverage unless their own employer offers health care.
• No proposed changes to health care providers or networks.
• In Local 371 and 919, no changes to out-of-pocket maximums and in Locals 1459, 1445 and 328, out-of-pocket maximums would match what Local 371 and 919 already have in their plan for Stop & Shop associates – which are still considerably lower than the national average.

The United Food and Commercial Workers late Tuesday afternoon posted the following summary of its claims:

• The offer would require the average full-time employee to pay an additional $893 in "weekly" health care premiums over three years and the average part-time employee with employee-only coverage to pay an additional $603 in "weekly" health care premiums over three years.
• The offer reduces the monthly pension benefit for many newly hired full-time employees by 32 percent and reducing the monthly pension benefit for many part-time employees by up to 72.2 percent.
• "Kicking off" approximately 1,000 employee spouses from family health care plans if the spouse is offered health care coverage by his or her employer.
• Phasing out time-and-a-half pay on Sundays and holidays for current part-time workers and eliminating it entirely for new, part-time staffers with approximately 75 percent of Stop & Shop’s workforce being part-time.
• Stop & Shop’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, had more than $2 billion in profits last year and received a U.S. tax cut of $225 million in 2017.
• Ahold Delhaize shareholders voted on April 10 to give themselves an 11.1 percent raise in dividends over the past year. The expected payout will be on April 25 for about $880 million.

Talks were scheduled for Wednesday. 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. The union represents about 31,000 workers.