Shaw’s frozen food workers turn up heat

BANGOR – Shaw’s Supermarkets may have to find another way to get its frozen foods to market starting next weekend if the grocery store chain and its union do not reach a contract agreement this week.

In Maine, the workers at Shaw’s frozen foods distribution center in Wells are among other union members throughout the region who have given its negotiating committee the authority to strike shortly after midnight Saturday, when the union’s current contract runs out.

The rest of the operations in Maine won’t be affected because retail employees, managers and truck drivers who pick up food at the distribution centers are not unionized. They are unionized in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The Wells distribution center is one of three Shaw’s operates besides contracting with outside companies to handle some of the load. Wells generally distributes food to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and northern Massachusetts, but it also is the primary frozen foods distribution site for Shaw’s 135 stores.

Shaw’s spokesman Bernard Rogan said he is not concerned about other products getting to the stores because those shipments could be made from other locations. But the distribution of frozen foods could be a problem if the union members walk out.

“It would affect all the stores if they go on strike,” Rogan said Saturday. “I don’t believe they will go on strike. But that is something going on around the negotiations table.”

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 791 in Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are seeking general wage and pension increases and a continuation of health care benefits at the same levels without an increase in co-payments, union spokesman Peter Derouen said Saturday.

“It’s going tough,” Derouen said of the contract negotiations. “It’s been a long and difficult five or six weeks dealing with this company.”

What the union also is seeking is more internal managerial control of the operations at distribution centers and stores instead of policies on work shifts and overtime being set at Shaw’s home office in West Bridgewater, Mass., Derouen said.

He said the union understands that the top officials at the grocery store chain are in charge of how the facilities are run. But, he said, Shaw’s leadership should have more faith in their managers and allow them “to run their businesses and not run them as sweatshops.”

The Wells distribution center became unionized in 1997. About the same time, the three-state union struck against Shaw’s, but the work stoppage lasted less than two days, Rogan said. It took just as long to get operations running again after the strike, he said.

Members giving permission to their negotiating committee to vote for a strike is a standard union procedure during contract negotiations. The committee is not afraid to follow through with a formal strike vote Friday night, Derouen said. Its other alternative is to present the members with what has been offered in terms of wages and benefits by the company at that time.

Derouen said he is hoping that a contract agreement is reached before Friday night.

“To be truthful about it, it’s like a hurricane – we’re preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.”

The distribution of products for Shaw’s shelves is a 24-hour operation, seven days a week, Derouen said. A strike could hurt that operation, he said.

“Once there’s a glitch in the system, that’s going to affect product availability in the stores unless they have alternative distribution [sites],” Derouen said. “And they will tell you they have alternative distribution centers so they don’t worry their customers.”

“We do have alternatives if we need them,” said Rogan, but these centers currently are being used as a normal part of their business. “Continuing to get product, that’s our goal.”

Ron Fellows, a driver for Clifford Perham Inc., based in southern Maine, picks up products at the Wells distribution center. Fellows delivered a truckload to the Main Street store in Bangor on Saturday afternoon.

Fellows said a strike would not interrupt his work schedule because he will be sent to other sites to pick up his load.

“We’ll just get it from somewhere else,” Fellow said. “All it does to us is give us a bigger paycheck. We just go farther to get it.”

Shaw’s is the second-largest grocery retailer in New England. It is a subsidiary of British grocery conglomerate J. Sainsbury. In 1998, the company purchased the Star Markets chain in the Boston area.