Stop & Shop employees and customers returned Monday morning, hours after the supermarket chain and union representing 31,000 workers announced an end to an 11-day strike.þShelves at the Manchester and East Hartford stores were nearly full, except in the meat, seafood and a few other areas. Workers were washing out a meat case in the Manchester store while a produce employee in East Hartford was separating out over-ripe potatoes.þ“It’s been a long 11 days,” said Malik West, an East Hartford Stop & Shop cashier who was collecting carts from the parking lot.þþThe unions said they would schedule a meeting to vote on the contract in coming days. On Sunday night, both sides called the agreement a compromise.þþTerms of the contract were not public and two workers said they’ve not seen what was negotiated.þþ“If we’re back to work, I guess it was a good deal,” West said.þþBarbara Fanning, a deli worker at the Manchester store, said she trusts the union.þ“It wouldn’t sign it if it wasn’t a good deal,” she said.þþLeaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers union declared victory.þ“None of the horrible things that we thought from the very beginning shouldn’t be a contract are in that contract,” said Mark Espinosa, the president of Local 919 who has been acting as a spokesman for the five unions representing 31,000 Stop & Shop workers.þCustomers were pleased to return to Stop & Shop.
Source: www.courant.com
