N.J., N.Y. Stop & Shop, ShopRite Workers Vote to Accept Contract

Workers at Stop & Shop in New Jersey and ShopRite in New Jersey and New York represented by United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1262 voted by a wide margin to accept a new labor agreement with their employers.

The new 24-month contract, retroactive to Oct. 16, 2011, continues to be one of the best labor agreements in the Northeast, providing unsurpassed health care benefits, a solid pension and across-the-board wage increases, according to Harvey Whille, president of Clifton, N.J.-based Local 1262, which represents more than 30,000 members in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania who are employed by such supermarket banners as ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Pathmark, Foodtown, Morton Williams and Milford Farms.

“Local 1262 is known for consistently negotiating pacesetting collective bargaining agreements that have improved working conditions, wages and benefits for our members,” noted Whille. “As in the past, we have negotiated a contract that continues to set the industry standard by providing excellent wages, comprehensive health benefit plans and secure pensions.”

The new contract covers almost 24,000 full- and part-time workers at stores in northern New Jersey and New York’s western Hudson Valley.

The local is currently in negotiations with Foodtown and Stop & Shop of New York, and expects to wind up those negotiations in the near future.

Local 1262 is New Jersey’s largest local labor union and among the largest local unions in the UFCW, which itself represents more than 1.3 million members employed in retail, food processing and other industries in the United States and Canada.