Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) brings coffee and donuts to striking Stop & Shop workers in Somerville, Mass. as she joins the picket line 📷: @scotteisenphoto #StopandShopStrike pic.twitter.com/uSuFXSO5we
— Getty Images News (@GettyImagesNews) April 12, 2019
Stop and Shop workers across New England went on strike at 1:15p Thursday (11-Apr-2019). The workers are represented by United Food & Commercial workers Locals 1445, 328, 371, 919, and 1459. Today (Friday), the strike continues (emphasis mine):
Thousands of Stop & Shop workers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut remain on strike Friday, a day after walking out amid failed contract negotiations between their union and the company. The workers, represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers Locals 1445, 328, 371, 919 and 1459, walked off the job around 1:15 p.m. Thursday. Customers were asked to leave their groceries behind and leave the stores.
The walkouts affected 134 stores in Massachusetts, 92 in Connecticut and 27 in Rhode Island. A Stop & Shop spokesperson said in an email Friday the “majority” of its stores in Massachusetts will remain open. Banks and pharmacies will also be open even if the supermarket is closed; however, all gas stations will be closed.
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Workers’ previous contract expired in February. At the center of negotiations was time-and-a-half pay for Sundays and holidays, which the union said the company was trying to strip away.Stop & Shop said at the time the agreement had to be in line with industry changes. With minimum wages gradually increasing each year until it reaches $15 an hour, Massachusetts is in the process of phasing out time-and-a-half pay for Sundays and holidays.
Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren Joined striking workers in Somerville this morning:
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“These giant companies think they can knock unions back,” she said. “Unions are here to stay because when you’re fighting for your family, you stay in the fight until you win.”Warren credited unions with being the foundation of the country’s middle class, declaring, “unions will rebuild America’s middle class.”
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I encourage each and every one of us to follow Ms. Warren’s example and show up to support these striking workers. A backroom deal made by legislators as part of a minimum wage package is one thing. The attempt by an employer to use that deal as an excuse for turning the screws on workers in contract negotiations is something else again.
These union workers need our support. They need us to help them make Stop & Shop understand that workers matter.
It is worth noting that Stop & Shop is owned by Ahold-Delhaize, a huge international conglomerate. The same company also operates Hannaford and Peapod in New England.
This is an excellent time to consider a boycott of all of these stores, as well as contacting management of all three (Stop & Shop, Hannaford, and Peapod) to express support for these striking workers.
Tom thanks for the post – just FYI I took out the photo out of fair use concerns. It’s not our photo and AP is not super-lenient about using their stuff. It’s their photo; they get to decide. Perhaps there’s a Creative Commons photo of Warren at the strike? Or something from her website or social media feeds that presumably the creator would *want* to be widely shared?
Edit: OK, I found a tweet from Getty where presumably they want it spread far and wide and allow it to be embedded …
I appreciate the edit.
I hope the larger media finds a way to provide better guidance about what images are and are not suitable for reposting on sites like this.
I’d call it all part of the whole, not something else. Our state legislatures turned their backs on laborers in the Commonwealth and refused to fight for us. If our own representatives can screw the workers and remain in office, what’s to stop the owners of Stop & Shop from doing the same? One person cuts my wages by 8% and the next wants to cut my pension and health care coverage…..I see no difference between the two.
I wish the workers at Stop & Shop the nest of luck, but with big corporations and our own state government against them, that’s a hard fight to win.
“I see no difference between the two”
I’m not sure which “two” you’re referring to.
There is a relatively long list list of things that are legal and reprehensible. I don’t want a society where the only criteria is “is it legal”, because that’s a society where the each and every offense must be prohibited by law before anybody will object to it. I therefore do see a difference between an employer choosing to remove Sunday and Holiday pay provisions and a government doing the same.
“Our state legislatures turned their backs on laborers in the Commonwealth and refused to fight for us.”
That’s one way to view it. Another way to view it is that our state legislators saw an opportunity to help tens of thousands of our our most desperately struggling working poor by raising the minimum wage to $15/hour.
It think its more accurate to say that state legislators turned their back on a relatively small portion of more highly-paid laborers in order to help a much larger number of lower-paid laborers.
However we view the action by state legislators, the move by Stop & Shop is still something to fight. A strong turnout in support of the Stop & Shop union is an excellent way to influence those state legislators.
Helping people who make less than $15 an hour is a noble thing, and it helps labor.
Cutting the wages of whose making $15 to $20 an hour is not a noble thing and it hurts labor.
Wow, and we wonder why we lose elections….
@We wonder why…:
The greatest-good paradigm is shared by every person I know who actually shares Democratic values and priorities. By that, I mean that the total gain aggregated over the entire society is more important than specific gains or losses experienced by individuals or by small groupings.
The parties who brought the minimum wage increase ballot question to the table were satisfied with this outcome. I’ve shown elsewhere here that more than half a million of the most poorly paid Massachusetts workers benefit from this bill. This change puts a total of nearly a billion dollars of new pay in their pockets.
That’s good enough for me.
I’m with you John. Working people have been asked to give up too much. Bring back time and a half; index the minimum wage.
Just to be clear, it’s only time and a half for Sundays and holidays that we’re talking about.
I just think that rhetoric like “turned their backs on laborers in the Commonwealth” is over the top. A small number of workers who are paid well above minimum wage lost Sunday and holiday overtime, while a huge number of minimum wage workers will receive a major pay increase over the next few years. I don’t see that as “turning their backs” on anybody.
I’m totally fine with bringing back the Sunday and holiday overtime provision, I’ve never argued otherwise. Telling legislators that they’ve “turned their backs on laborers in the Commonwealth” is, in my opinion, not the most effective way to persuade those legislators to make that change.
It’s an 8% pay cut over five years, as virtually all those employed in retail work Sundays.
You continue to cite the “large numbers” working for less than $15 and the “relatively small” numbers making $16-20. Do you have actual data on this or are you just pulling numbers out of thin air?
Personally, I started working in retail three years ago and I started, part time at $12.50 an hour. I currently make $17.00 an hour, full time, as do hundreds of people that I work with.
You, making $17/hour, are STILL complaining about not making more than $25/hour. Your $25/hr is comfortably more than twice the $11/hr minimum wage that the new law has increased to $15/hour by 2023. I don’t think many minimum wage workers are going to cry about your “hardship”.
Regarding data, multiple sources like MassBudget report:
The only group affected by the change in Sunday and Holiday pay is hourly retail trade employees (the regulations never applied to other industries). According to the Fed, there are about 350K total retail trade workers in Massachusetts. Not all of those are hourly, and not every hourly employee is required to work on Sundays and Holidays. Minimum wage employees who are in retail and who work Sundays will get a raise directly.
Your 8% number, therefore, applies to a small slice of a population that’s already half the size of the cited number of workers who will benefit.
I’ve shown that more than half a million of the lowest-paid workers in Massachusetts will receive a significant boost. The burden of proof is on you to show that a significant price is paid by those affected by the change in Sunday and Holiday pay — just citing the impact on yourself is not enough.
Finally, I think it is worth observing that the Sunday and Holiday pay provision was an aspect of our Blue Laws that are being widely dismantled. Pretty much all of us want or need the ability to shop on Sundays. It isn’t clear to me that imposing wage laws based on a specific religious tradition is appropriate in Massachusetts in 2019 aside from the economic impact.
There are secular quality of life reasons for encouraging a Sabbath for family time. Sunday is as good a day as any and sometimes it’s just easier to go with the cultural trend which historically was overwhelmingly Christian. I’m glad there is a day where if businesses such as retail which aren’t at all necessary insist on staying open at least it will cost them a bit more. There are however exceptions since my retail employment even before the law did not pay me more for Sundays.
That said, thank you for keeping up the discussion with JTM.