The Stop & Shop in Wethersfield was empty early Friday morning after a threat was called into the store Thursday evening, police said.
On day nine of their strike, Stop & Shop workers weren’t picketing the Wethersfield location at 1380 Berlin Turnpike as of 7:30 a.m. Friday, as a police cruiser was surveilling the area nearby on Jordan Lane.
Wethersfield police did not specify the threat called into the store Thursday at about 6 p.m.
The threat forced the store to close for about an hour and strikers disbanded shortly thereafter, an official from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union confirmed.
“All Stop & Shop workers who were at the store are safe,” a UFCW spokesperson said in a statement Friday. “We are deeply grateful to local police for their quick response and thank everyone in the community for their support.”
UFCW officials did not respond to inquiries on whether strikers would return to the store on Friday.
Meantime, a Stop & Shop spokeswoman said the Wethersfield store will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.
Mark McGowan, president of Stop & Shop’s New England division, in a statement Thursday evening reaffirmed the supermarket’s commitment to keeping workers and customers safe.
“I deeply respect your right to picket,” he said. “On several occasions, however, protests have gone far beyond civil – and customers and employees have been threatened, intimidated or put in situations that felt dangerous or disrespectful.”
McGowan continued: “That and illegal actions are things that we will — and I will — absolutely not stand for. We have a responsibility to make sure that everyone on Stop & Shop property is safe at all times, and we take this commitment very seriously.”
McGowan said labor negotiations are ongoing amid an expired three-year agreement with workers, reiterating details of the company’s proposal surrounding health care, pensions and wages.
Some 31,000 Stop & Shop workers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island remain on strike as union leaders argue the company is proposing to make dramatic cuts to existing healthcare and pension benefits.
Stop & Shop, which is owned by Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, has said it’s proposing pay increases for associate workers and is offering wages, healthcare coverage and pension benefits that exceed other industry competitors.
The 240 Stop & Shop stores in the three states have been mostly empty since workers walked off the job on April 11, causing the company to lose an estimated $20 million a day ahead of Easter Sunday, UFCW officials have said.
The strike is the first against Stop & Shop since 1988.
