You can still buy corn flakes: Stop & Shop worker strike is averted

NORTH CANAAN — Nearly three weeks beyond an expired contract, more than 36,000 Stop & Shop workers in southern New England, which includes the North Canaan store, have ratified an agreement, averting a threatened strike.

The scenario was playing out much as it did three years ago, when union workers threatened to strike over the same issues: benefits and pay increases. This time, negotiations brought both sides to common ground a little faster.

On March 6, the United Food and Commercial Workers and Dutch-based Royal Ahold, whose U.S. central office is in Quincy, Mass.,  reached an agreement. The details have yet to be disclosed, but unions in three states railed against proposed increases to health-insurance premiums, the elimination of a pension plan and minimal wage increases.

On March 7, the majority of union members voting agreed to the terms of a new contract, recommended by their unions.

During the 2007 negotiations, Stop & Shop claimed falling revenues for similar cost-saving measures. The most recent earnings report  for Stop&Shop and its sister chain, Giant, totaling about 350 stores, shows net sales up more than 10 percent to $4.4 billion.