For some, shopping stops

NORTH PROVIDENCE — Stop & Shop workers in Rhode Island and across New England went on strike early Thursday afternoon, walking away from their aisles and counters in a coordinated job action that shut down grocery shopping at the popular supermarkets.

Picketing outside Stop & Shop off Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence, more than 30 members of United Food and Commercial workers Local 328 shouted “Stop & Shop you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side” and said they would not return to work until the company negotiates a fair contract to replace the deal that expired in February.

Thursday evening, the store on Atwood Avenue in Cranston was open for business as managers worked the registers and about 30 employees picketed outside.

Another Cranston store, on Warwick Avenue, remained closed with seven or eight people picketing.

The Smithfield store on Putnam Pike was open for business as more than 20 employees walked the picket line Thursday night.

Rebecca Cole, a deli manager at the store from Warwick, said that she saw a bus carrying six replacement workers park around 2 p.m.

"They were brought in by a store manager," she said, adding that she did not know what their tasks were or where they were from. "I believe they are still in there."

She said the bus left around 7:30 p.m. and she did not see the workers leave with it.

As of 8:30 p.m. there were still some shoppers inside.

As both sides of the labor dispute — the employer and the employees — publicly aired aspects of their contract dispute, customers dealt with a significant and unexpected disruption to their normal patterns.

At the North Providence market, the luckiest shoppers, those in the store at the time of the walkout, gathered their food items and paid the store’s managers. Other shoppers, who arrived after the strike commenced, encountered pickets and doors that did not open.

Later in the afternoon, a Stop & Shop spokeswoman, Jennifer Brogan, said all stores were receiving pharmacy customers, and the company intended to reopen as soon as possible by relying on groups of “temporary replacement workers.”

Amanda Hurley, of Lincoln, and her 3-year-old son, Daryn, had been in the North Providence Stop & Shop gathering cheese balls, Arizona Green Tea and more than $300 worth of other groceries when the workers walked off the job.

Hurley said she was directed to one of the self-checkout registers near the entrance. There, she said, she was taken care of by two people whose uniforms identified them as managers and a third person wearing a blue shirt that said “Asset Protection.”

“I’m assuming, for a little bit, I don’t know how long, I’ll have to find another store,” Hurley said.

Brogan said she could provide no estimate of when specific Stop & Shop stores in Rhode Island would reopen.

In a statement posted on its company website, Stop & Shop said that federal mediators are assisting in contract negotiations.

The statement said company is "disappointed" that the union "chose ... to disrupt service at our stores."

“We just want a fair contract, that’s all,” said Steve Rhault, a meat manager at the North Providence store. “Just enough to make a living. We’re not looking to gouge anybody.”

The woman who heads up the store’s floral department, Donna Holland, 52, of Cranston, said she has worked for Stop & Shop for 29 years and never needed to go on strike.

Holland said Stop & Shop has proposed raising the deductible for some medical coverage from $2,500 to $5,000, eliminating medical insurance for employees’ spouses and forcing new full-time employees to re-accumulate vacation time earned during any previous part-time employment with the company.

Brogan clarified that Stop & Shop would eliminate medical coverage of spouses only if they are eligible for coverage through their employer.

She did not immediately have a response to Holland’s other points or a different point made by 34-year-old Jeffrey Drouin, of Woonsocket.

Drouin, who said he takes home about $500 after taxes each week, said he is about two months away from being eligible for a pension after working at Stop & Shop for almost five years. He said the company proposes ending the pension benefit among employees who are not yet eligible.

The father of four had set his sights on earning that pension.

“They basically want to take everything away from us,” he said.

Brogan had not responded to Drouin's contention by 10 p.m. Thursday. In its news release, the company said it has proposed increasing company contributions to the pension fund.

Among the customers who were unable to buy merchandise at the Stop & Shop on West River Street in Providence was Griselda Harrington, 50, of Pawtucket.

"It's a little annoying," Harrington said in Spanish. But, she said, "it's reasonable that they increase their wages."

Sofia Irons, 44, of Providence, said she would probably do her shopping at the nearby Walmart instead.

In their dueling news releases, the union accused the company of “demanding unreasonable wage and benefit cuts” and asking customers to do more of the work themselves. The company asserted that it has proposed “a good and reasonable offer” incorporating health benefits for eligible employees who would contribute “a fraction of what employees at other retail companies pay.”

— With staff reports from Madeleine List and Kevin G. Andrade