Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 have reached a tentative deal on a new labor agreement for some 6,000 Stop & Shop employees in the metropolitan region who have worked for six weeks without a contract.
The tentative pact will be voted on Dec. 23 by union members at multiple locations, UFCW Local 1500 officials announced. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
A previous contract expired Sept. 28 and was twice extended as negotiations faltered over issues related to the union”™s health and welfare fund and health insurance changes resulting from the Affordable Care Act. With the last contract extension expired since Nov. 2 and bargaining at an impasse, a federal mediator asked the company and union to agree to a cooling off period over Thanksgiving to avert a strike or lockout at 54 Stop & Shop stores from New York City to Rhinebeck.
Anthony Speelman, the grocery union”™s lead negotiator and secretary-treasurer, in a press release called the three months of negotiations a “tense and difficult process.” Local 1500 was in the final planning stages for a work stoppage when the tentative deal was reached.
“Our team has fought every second of the day to try and secure not just ”˜any contract”™ but the best contract we can,” said union negotiating committee member Greg Pasquale. “We feel we have.”
Based in Westbury, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 represents more than 22,800 grocery workers in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties who are employed by Pathmark, Fairway, Stop and Shop, Gristedes, D’Agostinos, Key Food, Shop Rite and King Kullen supermarkets.
