A dispute over pensions in a new contract has led to a union strike limiting deliveries from the huge Associated Grocers Northeast warehouse in Pembroke.
The impact of the dispute on as many as 1,000 independent stores that are members of the co-op throughout New England and New York remains unclear.
Teamsters Local 633 went on strike after the current five-year contract expired Oct. 17. Pickets are being manned at the distribution warehouse around the clock. The major stumbling block in ongoing contract negotiations, said Keith Judge, business agent for the union, is that AG wants to end the company pension and replace it with a 401K savings plan.
“We’ve had people working here for like 35 plus years, and all of a sudden, they want to rip out something that’s been a part of our lives the entire time they’ve been here,” said Nathaniel Howard, a loader who was one of 40 picketers at the site Thursday morning. “Like I’m just gonna let a corporation just remove benefits because what’s it going to be next? If we just let it happen, what are they going to take away from us next?”
The union represents about 255 people at the facility, including drivers, warehouse workers and maintenance personnel, said Judge.
The company is continuing to operate the Pembroke facility with non-union personnel. Judge claimed they were using a “handful of workers” and “not getting anywhere near the product out.” The company could not be reached for comment.
The warehouse ships out bulk-bought items from cigarettes, frozen food and produce to canned goods and meats.
The union local held a “practice picket” at the site in early September as an indication that a real strike would go through if a contract wasn’t approved in time. They have been striking at all hours of the day since Monday.
On Thursday morning, the group of protesting workers held signs above their heads or around their necks and walked around together in a big circle, scraping by the picket line. Upbeat songs like “Say Hey (I Love You)” and “Red Red Wine” played over a speaker as they marched.
The workers stood in the way of delivery trucks coming to and from the facility. They cleared the path to let the trucks go through, but not before giving the driver a few pointed shouts.
Dan Johnston has been out picketing every day since 3 a.m., when his usual shift as a maintenance lead would start. He’s been through six contracts with the company and they’ve never come to this point, although they came close, he said.
“We’re fighting for our families right now,” said Johnston, who’s been working at Associated Grocers for 32 years. “If I was to leave right now and not stay the full term, I’d lose like 400 bucks a month, and that to me is pretty significant.”
Associated Grocers was started in Concord in 1946 as a cooperative arrangement among independent grocery stores that pooled their purchasing power to better compete with chain supermarkets in the post-World War II economy. By the 1960s, they had expanded outside New Hampshire and in 2006 they built their central distribution warehouse and headquarters on Route 3 in Pembroke, which has since been expanded. They renamed themselves Associated Grocers Northeast this year as they expanded beyond New England.
Associated Grocers owns two Sully’s markets, in Allenstown and Goffstown, as well as Vista Market in Laconia and Berlin Marketplace, and a number of markets in Vermont.
