Threat Forces Stop & Shop To Close As Strike Hits Day 9

CONNECTICUT — Tensions are continuing to increase as the Stop & Shop strike continues into Day 9 as we head into the Easter holiday weekend. For at least the second time this week an incident has been reported involving Stop & Shop employees who are striking at supermarkets across Connecticut and New England.

At 6 p.m. Thursday a man called in a threat to the Stop & Shop, 1380 Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield. The caller, who has not yet been identified, said he'd come to the store to shoot striking employees with an AK-47, police said.

The store manager called police informing them of the "suspicious phone call that was threatening in nature." The store manager said the male caller asked him if picketers were still outside the store, police said.

"After the manager stated that the employees were still in front of the store, the male stated he was coming to the store to shoot them with an AK-47. All of the picketing employees that were outside were immediately brought into the store to safeguard them. The store was closed to the public," Wethersfield Police say.

Numerous Wethersfield Police Officers responded to the store. There were no injuries nor any acts of violence, police said. Wethersfield Police Department Detectives are investigating this incident. Anyone who may have information regarding this incident is urged to call Wethersfield Police at (860) 721-2901.

“It was a normal day at strike time, but then they received a phone call from someone to the store saying they didn’t enjoy us and they wanted to come shoot us,” Jason O’Keefe, a shop steward at the Wethersfield supermarket, told the Hartford Courant.

Vice President of Union 919 Michael Calderon told Fox 61 he went to the store Thursday night "to make sure my people are safe. We are trying to fight for the lives of the people that work in the stores so this is our lives please don’t do this to us, no need for this.”

Stop & Shop released a statement, according to WFSB 3 TV saying, "We closed the store out of an abundance of caution for our customers and associates, and we are cooperating with local police.”

Both union and management officials credited one another for working together concerning the Wethersfield threat, according to media reports.

Earlier this week in an unrelated incident, Shabrina Fludd, 30, of Bridgeport was arrested at the Wilton Stop & Shop where she was involved in a dispute with a striking employee. Police said Fludd got into a verbal altercation with the Stop & Shop employees protesting in front of the store.

"Fludd became angry when she saw she was being video recorded by a protester, and then grabbed the phone out of the striking employee's hand while still yelling at them, according to the police report. Police removed Fludd from the premises, and have reported no injuries," police said in a report.

In Milford, police said they arrested Jeffrey Detoro, 35, of Milford at the 855 Bridgeport Avenue Stop & Shop on April 11. On that date, police responded to the store due to an "unruly person" and Detoro was charged, police said. Detoro was initially given a trespassing infraction after being told to leave the property by a store manager but still refused and he was then charged with first-degree criminal trespass and interfering with a police officer, police said in a report. A Milford police spokesman told Patch that he was uncertain if this incident was related to the strike.

And while there is no immediate end in sight to the strike, both sides continue to talk. A big issue has been the topic of pension-related benefits.

Stop & Shop says it has offered the following:

• No cuts to pension benefits associates already have earned.
• A 20 percent increase in the company's contributions to the pension fund to keep benefits growing under the funds' rules at the same rate for current full- and vested part-time associates.
• Increased pension fund contributions are at no cost to associates.

Stop & Shop officials said associate pension benefits are managed by the UFCW pension funds, whose trustees include representatives of the union and employers in the plan.

Earlier this week, the focus was on health care. According to Stop & Shop officials:

• Stop & Shop would pay at least 92 percent of health premiums for family coverage and at least 88 percent for individual coverage. The federal government pays 72 percent of its employees' health premiums.
• Associates would pay 9 to 12 percent of individual coverage premiums or 6 to 8 percent of family premiums (depending on the local contract), compared to national averages of 20 percent for individual coverage, 28 percent for families.

• Increases of $2 to $4 per week each year have been proposed.
• Deductibles would not increase or change – $200 to $300 since 2007.
• Limited increases to prescription co-pays.
• Spouses are eligible for health care coverage unless their own employer offers health care.
• No proposed changes to health care providers or networks.
• In Local 371 and 919, no changes to out-of-pocket maximums and in Locals 1459, 1445 and 328, out-of-pocket maximums would match what Local 371 and 919 already have in their plan for Stop & Shop associates – which are still considerably lower than the national average.

The United Food and Commercial Workers earlier this week posted the following summary of its claims:

• The offer would require the average full-time employee to pay an additional $893 in "weekly" health care premiums over three years and the average part-time employee with employee-only coverage to pay an additional $603 in "weekly" health care premiums over three years.
• The offer reduces the monthly pension benefit for many newly hired full-time employees by 32 percent and reducing the monthly pension benefit for many part-time employees by up to 72.2 percent.
• "Kicking off" approximately 1,000 employee spouses from family health care plans if the spouse is offered health care coverage by his or her employer.
• Phasing out time-and-a-half pay on Sundays and holidays for current part-time workers and eliminating it entirely for new, part-time staffers with approximately 75 percent of Stop & Shop's workforce being part-time.
• Stop & Shop's parent company, Ahold Delhaize, had more than $2 billion in profits last year and received a U.S. tax cut of $225 million in 2017.
• Ahold Delhaize shareholders voted on April 10 to give themselves an 11.1 percent raise in dividends over the past year. The expected payout will be on April 25 for about $880 million.

Stop & Shop workers in New England and have been in negotiations with the supermarket chain since Jan. 14 and the current contract expired on Feb. 23. The union represents about 31,000 workers.

Chris Dehnel and Rich Kirby contributed to this story.