Shaw’s union workers vote to OK strike

BOSTON – Union workers at Shaw’s Supermarkets voted to authorize a strike if no agreement with management is reached before current contracts expire July 27.

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 791 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine voted Sunday to give the union’s negotiating committee authority to authorize the strike, a common practice as contract deadlines approach.

Paul Gannon, Shaw’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, released a statement Monday offering to negotiate beyond the deadline.

“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,” he said.

Shaw’s is the second-largest grocery retailer in New England. A subsidiary of British grocery conglomerate J. Sainsbury, it operates about 170 stores throughout New England. It grew considerably in the Boston area with its 1998 purchase of the Star Market chain.