After a bitter four-month strike, Shaw’s workers finally reached a deal with the grocery chain.
The strike began on March 7, when employees at the Shaw’s warehouse in Methuen, Mass. were offered a contract they deemed unfair and unaffordable. The contract significantly cut health care benefits, forcing the workers to shoulder the bulk of the expense.
Shaw’s is the second-largest grocery retailer in the Northeast after Stop and Shop, owning more than 180 stores throughout the region, and employing more than 30,000 workers.
The grocery chain is owned by the Minnesota-based Supervalu, which brought in $44.5 billion in net sales last year.
Less than a week after the strike began, Shaw’s hired replacement workers, and soon after terminated all health care benefits for the workers on strike and their families.
Anthony Zuba, lead organizer of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice — one of several organizations that worked closely with the Methuen employees — blasted Shaw’s for its use of health care “as an economic weapon.”
In late May, 300 workers, their families and their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 791, organized a five-day, 60-mile march from the warehouse in Methuen to the Statehouse in Boston.
According to Mike Upton, one of the workers on strike, the march was organized to draw greater attention to the situation. “People need to understand that we’re still here,” he said.
But local politicians took notice even before the marchers reached the Statehouse. Urging a swift and fair settlement, 11 politicians, including U.S. Sen. John Kerry and U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, wrote a letter to Craig Herkert, president and CEO of Supervalu.
“We find 300 of our brothers and sisters losing their benefits because an otherwise healthy company cannot come to an agreement with employees that have served them loyally for decades,” they said.
“We urge local management and corporate executives to respect the right to organize and to bargain collectively.”
However, the deadlock continued, and the UFCW also called for a national boycott of Supervalu, with other unions, including Teamsters and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, joining in pickets in front of Shaw’s grocery stores.
Last week, the Shaw’s workers voted in a new contract, 171-37, to end the strike. A spokesman for the workers’ Local 791 said the contract has yet to be officially signed, and would not comment on the details of the settlement until then.
According to the Boston Globe, Shaw’s spokeswoman Rebekah Fawcett said the new agreement includes wage increases and greater employer contribution to a health care plan, but would not reveal details.
Shaw’s and the union are still negotiating the terms of the workers’ return, but will probably take place in the upcoming weeks after the replacement workers are let go.
“The economics of the offer were comparable to the offer we had on the table at the beginning of the strike, and we believe this is a fair deal because it balanced our business needs with those of our associates and our customers,” Fawcett said. “We agreed with the union that this was the right path forward.”
