Workers at the Hannaford warehouse in South Portland will continue contract negotiations Tuesday without returning to the picket line, a union official said Monday.
Almost 250 members of United Food and Commercial Workers 1445 rejected a final three-year contract proposal and authorized a strike on Feb. 17. Workers held a one-day strike Wednesday.
The distribution center is operated by Delhaize America Distribution, a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, Hannaford’s parent company.
Workers aren’t planning to go back on strike immediately and the two parties will talk again Tuesday, said Jim Carvalho, political director for the union.
“We have finished meeting for today,” Carvalho said in an email Monday. “We will meet again with the company tomorrow at 10 a.m. As of right now, no job action is planned for tomorrow.”
United Food and Commercial Workers 1445 represents 15,000 workers in New England.
Christy Philips-Brown, spokeswoman for Delhaize America Distribution, offered no details of Monday’s talks.
“The mediation is confidential and we can’t comment on the details,” she said. “We … remain committed to reaching a fair and competitive agreement.”
The South Portland warehouse supplies 103 Hannaford locations in New England, more than half of the U.S. locations. There are 63 Hannaford stores in Maine.
The union has said the contract proposed by the company would have cut starting wages for new employees by 40 percent and did not address soaring health insurance costs. Striking workers last week said they felt they were being treated unfairly by the company after making concessions on retirement plans and other benefits in previous contracts.
Ahold Delhaize is a Dutch company formed when Royal Ahold bought Belgian-based Delhaize Group in 2015. The company also owns U.S. grocery chains Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Giant.
Peter McGuire can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:
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