SHAW'S LOCAL SET TO STRIKE SHOULD TALKS NOT SUCCEED

MARTIN SCHNEIDER

EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791 employed by Shaw's Supermarkets here last week voted to strike if a new contract is not ratified by July 27.

Union leaders and company management said many issues remain to be resolved in their ongoing negotiations, although a union representative told SN he believed a strike could be avoided.

In 1997, the local, which represents Shaw's employees in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, went out on strike for two days before agreeing to the four-year contract that expires later this month.

Paul Gannon, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Shaw's, said that the company will put its best foot forward in negotiating a contract by the deadline.

"We've approached negotiations with the clearly stated intentions of treating associates fairly, remaining competitive in benefits and wages, and in gaining some operational changes that can help us to remain competitive and grow," he said. "We had hoped the union leadership would come to the table with a sense of cooperation so that our respective goals could be met.

"We are absolutely willing to continue negotiations past the deadline to reach an agreement, and ask the union to make the same pledge. Local 791 and Shaw's have done that in the past. However, given the inflexibility of the union negotiating team, their pro-strike rhetoric that began before we even came to the table, and their strike four years ago, that seems unlikely."

Peter Derouen, spokesman for the union, told SN, "There is still some time to go before the expiration date, but we are quite a distance apart. We're placing a lot of responsibility on the company to get down to serious bargaining and real issues."

Derouen noted that one major point of contention from the union's perspective is Shaw's insistence on rewriting the contract for the company's warehouse employees.

"It took 15 months to iron out that contract three years ago, and the only advantage to rewriting it is to delete benefits to the employees. They're trying to run a non-union shop in a union warehouse," Derouen said.

Derouen added that in addition to the warehouse contract, other issues the union is addressing are forced overtime and holiday hours, and the company's loosening of full-time job descriptions, which Derouen said would diminish opportunities for top-tiered full-time employees.

But the union is ultimately optimistic it can settle the contract negotiations without a strike.

"We're willing to bargain in good faith on many issues. Two strikes in four years is not a good thing," Derouen said.