After two days of talks to iron out a new contract on wages and health insurance and to avert another strike, Hannaford Supermarket officials and the union representing workers at its South Portland distribution center will resume discussions next week.
“No meetings are scheduled for the rest of this week,” the union’s political director, Jim Carvalho, said in an email to the Bangor Daily News. “We have sent the company dates in which we are eager to meet next week and are waiting to hear back from them on their availability.”
After their contract ran out on Feb. 17, 250 workers of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445 voted to authorize a strike. The workers rejected a new, three-year contract that included a wage increase of 50 cents per hour for existing employees but also reduced the starting wage for new hires from $20 to $16. The workers held a 24-hour strike on Feb. 21.
“We won’t know what was accomplished until bargaining has been completed,” union President Jeff Bollen said Monday in an emailed response to questions by the Bangor Daily News. “As far as I know, no deliveries were made on Wednesday [during the 24-hour strike].”
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Hannaford, unions extend contract talks into next week,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Lori Valigra, please follow this link to the BDN online.
