Employees at Pathmark, Superfresh Vote to Accept Wage Cuts

Facing a series of grim alternatives, grocery workers at 16 Philadelphia-area Pathmark and Superfresh supermarkets voted Tuesday to approve labor contract concessions designed to help the food retailers return to profitability. 

The vote—held at the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1776 union hall in Plymouth Meeting—approved changes to a union contract that will restrict wages and cut benefits for some 1,200 cashiers, meat cutters, bakery staff and other supermarket workers, according to union president Wendell Young IV.

“This wasn’t easy. No one was happy with the situation. But it is also bittersweet in the sense that there is optimism that making these cuts now will give the company a chance,” to recover from its financial problems, Young said.

The vote comes as a direct result of the bankruptcy of The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co., or A&P, late last year. A&P, the parent company of Pathmark, Superfresh and several other chains in the mid-Atlantic region, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in a federal bankruptcy court in New York. It cited heavy debts and high labor costs as two reasons for the filing.

Since then, A&P executives have been engaged in talks with a coalition of 13 union locals representing more than 30,000 grocery workers throughout the mid-Atlantic region. At the outset of negotiations, A&P said that it needed labor concessions worth $125 million annually to avoid financial collapse and liquidation of the company.

The negotiations were difficult, Young said, and the union leaders were constantly aware that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy law was working against them. Section 1113 of the law permits bankruptcy judges to cancel existing labor contracts outright, and the threat of such cancellation was a constant cloud over the negotiations, he said.

Ultimately all 13 local unions agreed to concessions. In voting held over the last three days, the rank-and-file membership ratified the agreements by strong majorities in all cases, Young said.

A pooled vote count from all the 13 union locals showed about 80 percent of members in favor of the concessions, with only about 20 percent opposed, he said.

A&P spokeswoman Marcy Connor said the company had no comment on the labor agreements at this time.

In , the former Pathmark site on Lawrence Road has remained vacant since it shut its doors in October of last year. Since then, between the developer, Paul de Botton of National Realty Corp., and Crozer-Keystone Health System. The last dicussions were taken in December of 2010.

But since then, residents in Marple are wondering what will come of the of what they would like to see. Third Ward Commissioner Jim Balk stated that he would personally like to see a recreational facility at the site and hoped the township would get more involved at a meeting on Nov. 9.

As of Nov. 30, a recreational facility received the highest amount of votes (40 percent) but with another grocery store coming in a close second with 38 percent of readers' votes in our poll.

Don't forget to or tell us what you would like to see in the comments section.