Union membership isn’t what it used to be years ago when our nation was a far different place than it is today.
In recent decades, union membership has fallen, although in Massachusetts, union membership remains higher than in most other parts of the nation.
The settling of the Stop and Shop strike, which lasted two weeks, is the surest sign that union membership still means something when push comes to shove and everyone in the union is willing to sacrifice their pay to get what they want and need out of a contract.
The past two weeks has been a public relations and business disaster for Stop and Shop.
When the strike was settled over the weekend following lengthy deliberations, it was a victory for both sides.
Stop and Shop got to open up for business again the way it needs tobe open in order to run itself profitably.
The employees won a victory covering some pay and health insurance issues which allows them to go back to work with their heads heldhigh and their pay and benefits in tact.
The Everett Stop and Shop was picketed during the crucial strike period by Senator Sal DiDomenico and former councilor Jason Marcus, among other local public figures.
We applaud their commitment to the workingmen and women of this city.
Here at the Leader Herald, we did not enter a Stop and Shop during the strike.
Our solidarity is with the working-class men and women struggling to get by in their lives working for great corporations attempting tocut back on their pay and health insurance benefits.
Those cutbacks were intended to increase Stop and Shop earnings. The two week strike boomeranged on management.
It was more costly to settle because of the strike than it would have been to stave off the strike by coming to an accommodation that worked for ownership, stockholders and employees.
Strikes are counterproductive to good business practice.
Yet as Stop and Shop’s employees have proven – the strike helped them to achieve concessions that would not have been given to them unless they took action.