Stop & Shop Reaches Tentative Agreement With Massachusetts DC Employees
After a threatened strike, Teamsters Local 25 has come to a tentative six-year agreement covering more than 900 workers at Stop & Shop’s Freetown, Mass., distribution center. Under the agreement, which was hammered out over multiple discussions and has yet to be ratified, the facility remains open, the workers receive their largest wage increases ever, and benefits are strengthened.
Teamsters at Stop & Shop had the full support of 30,000-plus United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) members, who vowed to honor Teamsters’ picket lines if Stop & Shop went ahead with plans to close the facility. Elected officials, among them Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, also called for the matter to be resolved at the negotiating table.
“I am proud to have stood with the Teamsters to ensure these good-paying union jobs stay in Massachusetts,” noted Healey. “Keeping the Freetown distribution center open while securing strong wages and benefits is a win for these workers and our entire state.”
The proposed agreement stipulates that new hires will receive an 80% wage increase over the length of the agreement, while veteran workers will see a more than 30% raise. Further, the agreement preserves Teamsters’ health care, considerably increases pension contributions and ensures the long-term operation of the Freetown facility.
“I am thrilled that we were able to work together on a new contract that both provides an outstanding package of wages and benefits to our associates and supports us in our strategy of improving the customer experience by reducing operating costs,” said Stop & Shop President Roger Wheeler. “Stop & Shop continues to put care for our people at the forefront of everything we do, and we are proud to continue our legacy as one of the region’s largest union employers in the retail business.”
“[O]ur membership at Stop & Shop achieved the strongest contract in the supermarket industry,” noted Thomas G. Mari, president of Boston-based Teamsters Local 25. “We are proud of our members’ solidarity and commitment to remain united throughout negotiations. The final agreement not only contained significant increases in wages and working conditions, but also provided job security to more than 900 Teamsters for the foreseeable future. We encourage all citizens to utilize Stop & Shop for the best groceries available in New England.”
Teamsters Local 25 associates working at the Freetown distribution center will have the chance to ratify the new contract this week.
Founded in 1903, the Washington, D.C.-based International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Employing 50,000 associates, Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. LLC is an Ahold Delhaize USA company that operates 350-plus stores throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, is No. 11 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. The company’s brands are Food Lion, The Giant Co., Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. PG also named the company one of its Retailers of the Century and among its 2024 10 Most Sustainable Grocers.
