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May 29, 2020

Stop & Shop extends 10% hazard pay increase again

HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper Stop & Shop at 1380 Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield.
By Joe Cooper

Stop & Shop says a 10% pay increase it implemented for hourly union workers several months ago due to the COVID-19 outbreak has been extended through July 4.

The Somerville, Mass.-based grocery chain on Thursday said the hazard pay bump, which first took effect March 22 and was extended last month through May 30, will now be extended a second time, benefitting approximately 56,000 workers in more than 400 stores in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. 

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents the majority of Stop & Shop workers, in a statement Thursday called on all supermarkets to follow the grocery chain's lead and provide "good pay and the benefits and protections they [employees] need."

Thursday's announcement comes a month after Stop & Shop and UFCW united to call on federal and state governments to temporarily classify grocery store associates as “extended first responders” or “emergency personnel” to ensure they would have access to testing, emergency childcare and other protections during the pandemic. Their calls came just a year after unionized Stop & Shop workers in Connecticut accepted a new three-year labor contract that ended a bitter 11-day work stoppage.

Meantime, Stop & Shop parent Ahold Delhaize has been pursuing a strategy to transform its supply chain into a fully integrated, self-distribution model in Connecticut and other Northeast states.

Ahold recently announced it’s building one of two new fully-automated cold-storage warehouses on vacant land in Plainville.

In early April, the company also launched a grocery distribution operation in a sprawling Manchester warehouse.

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