Stop & Shop and unionized workers resume negotiations to end the strike

Negotiations between Stop & Shop officials and striking workers resumed on Sunday, as both sides strive to resolve a dispute over proposed changes to health care benefits and employee compensation.

Stop & Shop spokeswoman Jennifer Brogan and the spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), representing 31,000 striking employees, confirmed the continuation Easter Sunday.

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UFCW members in the 240 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connection formed pickets on April 11 to protest the company's proposed "health care" changes. net salary and other benefits ". The union says the supermarket The chain's parent company, Ahold Delhaize, collected more than $ 2 billion in profits last year and bought $ 4 billion worth of shares over the past three years.

Some stores in the area were completely closed, while others were open until Sunday noon without specialist staff in delis, seafood and bakery.

Many of Stop & Shop's loyal customers have not crossed the picket line and have resumed operations elsewhere, according to data from Skyhook, a Boston-based location and intelligence company.

In the first days of the strike, visits from loyal customers at Stop & Shop dropped by 75%, according to Skyhook. Instead, they visited other grocery stores in the area, such as Hannaford (a supermarket chain in New England and New York), which recorded a 300% increase in pedestrian regular customers of Stop & Shop.

Meanwhile, the strike has attracted the attention of politicians from across the country. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg joined the picketers at a shop in Malden, Massachusetts on Friday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is expected to announce his candidacy soon, joined striking workers at a rally on Thursday, while Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who announced her candidacy in December, said offered coffee and donuts to picketers April 12.

Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Also expressed his support for the workers, saying that he supported the unionized workers "in their fight for the protection of health care and workers' rights".