Loading...
HARTFORD, Conn. -- More than 7,500 Stop & Shop supermarket workers walked off the job Tuesday, virtually shutting down Connecticut's largest food store chain and its outlets in western Massachusetts.
The strike had been set to begin at noon, but angry union leaders ordered workers at 47 stores in Connecticut to leave several hours earlier because of a management letter asking employees to stay on the job.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union ordered the strike to protest what they called stalling tactics on a new contract before a pending corporate takeover of Stop & Shop takes effect April 1.
No contract talks were scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon.
The walkout had immediate effects as picket lines were set up and a company spokeswoman said 41 of the 47 stores across the state were closed by noon.
In Stratford, workers walked off their jobs at 10:10 a.m., mixing with shoppers at the exits before the store closed down.
'We just walked off the job. We have to leave things as they were,' said Tony Dattilo, a cashier for 22 years. 'I think we deserve a little more that what we're getting.'
The firm's eight stores in western Massachusetts also closed when union workers who extended their contract honored picket lines set up by 175 members of the striking union.
The workers were ordered out earlier because of the letter which urged workers to remain on the job,said Arnaldo Espinosa, president of the UFCW's Local 919 in Hartford.
Company officials said they were caught by surprise by the early walkout and had sought union leaders to resume negotiations.
'The union had given us a noon deadline but they have started pulling the workers now,' said company spokeswoman Aileen Gorman at company headquarters in Boston.
Gorman said company negotiators had 'been up all night' preparing a new proposal for the workers to be presented at a bargaining session in Hartford, but union negotiators were unavailable.
The union feared many jobs would be cut when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York investment banking firm, takes over the company April 1, said Espinosa.
Stop & Shop announced Feb. 29 it had agreed to be acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $1.2 billion, saving the supermarket chain from an attempted hostile takeover by Dart Group Corp. of Landover, Md.
Dart Group had begun unfriendly advances toward Stop & Shop more than a month earlier, triggering a string of lawsuits and counter suits.
Stop & Shop Cos. operates 113 Stop & Shop supermarkets in New England and 169 Bradlees discount department stores on the East Coast.