Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to support Stop & Shop workers on strike at a rally Thursday in Dorchester and gave them words of encouragement. New England workers have been on strike since April 11 after company officials and employees failed to reach a new contract agreement after months of negotiations.
The most recent proposal the Quincy-based company presented to its workers included changes to health care premiums, the family health care plan and pensions.
At the rally, Biden spoke in support of the workers and about the importance of the middle class.
“Let me get this straight,” Biden said in his speech. “Wall Street bankers and CEOs did not build America. You built America, we built America. Ordinary middle-class people built America, and that is just a simple fact.”
Yvone Bento, a 43-year-old resident of Swansea, works for a Stop & Shop in Somerset and said she thinks the corporation’s changes are not fair.
“The corporation is saying, ‘We are giving them raises across the board,’ but they are giving us a 50-cent raise to hike my health insurance, cut my benefits for retirement,” Bento said. “That’s not fair.”
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh also spoke at the rally and said he stood with the striking workers.
“I have one message to Stop & Shop, it is a simple message — sit down on the table and negotiate a contract and respect the people that make the money for your corporate office,” Walsh said. “Make sure you respect workers on your table and take care of them.”
Biden, who comes from a working-class background in Scranton, Pennsylvania, emphasized the importance of middle class families in America.
“The middle class is not a number, it is a value set,” Biden said at the rally. “It is being able to buy your own home and not rent it, it is being able to send your kid to a decent park where they know they are going to come home safely. It is being able to send them to school and hope they go beyond high school.”
The middle-class life, Biden said, is only possible when workers are given fair insurance and wages.
“So, how does that happen? It happens when we have decent health care, fair wage and a retirement plan,” Biden said. “Without those things, you cannot live a middle-class life.”
Stop & Shop’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, received a $225 million dollar tax cut under President Donald Trump’s new tax cut policy.
“The CEO gets paid a hell of a lot more, the wealthy get paid a hell of a lot more,” Biden said, “and the stockholders get paid a hell of a lot more.”
Kristina Johnson, a 51-year-old resident of Medford, works for the Sommerville branch of Stop & Shop and said she thinks the company’s lack of health care coverage is ridiculous, especially given the money the company received from the tax cut.
“This is a company that had a $225 million tax cut [in 2017]. They made 2 billion in profits,” Johnson said. “And they want us to pay even more for our health care? That is absolutely ridiculous, and it is nothing but corporate greed. When is it enough?”
Worker strikes for Stop & Shop are also happening in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Michelle White, of Providence, Rhode Island, works for a Stop & Shop and said she is struggling to support her medical expenses for herself and her three daughters.
“I have three daughters to think about, and struggling to support doctor’s visits and higher premiums and increase prescription cost is something I never thought I had to worry about with this job,” Weight said. “We are not asking for a raise — all we are asking is to keep the benefits that we already had. We just want what is fair for us in the community, and that is what we are fighting for.”
Adam Varga, a Stop & Shop employee from Stamford, Connecticut, said he wants his coworkers to know they are there for one another.
“I work hard,” Varga said. “I take pride in my job, and I love my coworkers, but I’m here today because I want my coworkers to know that as hard as it is, we are all here together. Across the country, corporations are putting shareholders ahead of workers and ahead of their customers.”
Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said at the rally she also supported the strikers. Goldberg’s parents were once owners of a Stop & Shop, she said, and they ran the operation like a family business and loved their employees.
“When I was a little girl, I never could have imagined that I would have to be standing here today in support of our wonderful families, who are part of my family, against Stop & Shop,” Goldberg said at the rally.
Biden said to the workers he has had enough of the morally wrong behavior of corporations and that he stands with the workers.
“I know that you guys are used to political speeches, and I am a politician, I get it, but this is way beyond that,” Biden said. “This is way beyond that because it is morally wrong. I have had enough of it, I am sick of it, and so are you.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that under the proposed contract, Stop & Shop employees’ Sunday wage premiums would be decreased and paid holidays would be cut. In fact, these provisions have not been proposed. This information has been removed from the story in the version above.
On the contrary middle class life is being ruined by overpaid union workers who seek equal pay and benefits for their mediocre performance. Let the free market dictate the pay and benefits for the individual worker.
Maybe scientists should form a union and demand that NIH award an equal amount of funding to all the mediocre scientists too? Maybe students should form a union and demand equal grades to all the mediocre students?
Sorry folks but in the real world people should be paid based on the their “real productivity” not simply because they are a member of a union.