For the second time, a presidential hopeful joined striking Stop & Shop workers on the picket line. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana, visited with members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Friday afternoon in Malden."This largest private sector labor action strike in three years is sending a message that is going to ripple out far beyond New England. And the message is that companies have to do right by their workers," Buttigieg said. His visit comes a day after former Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the union employees in Dorchester. UFCW members at 240 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut went on strike on April 11 to protest what they call cuts to health care and take-home pay in the company's latest contract proposal."When you talk to the workers, this is not about them making a really aggressive ask and being beaten back. This is about a sense of erosion, a sense of being chipped away at in terms of benefits that they have counted on for their lives," Buttigieg said. Quincy-based Stop & Shop, a division of Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, says it is offering across-the-board raises and "excellent" health care benefits that beat industry standards."There is nothing we want more than having our associates back in the stores, taking care of customers and our communities. We have offered fair and responsible contracts and remain in active negotiations to reach new agreements as quickly as possible that keep our associates among the highest paid grocery retail workers in New England, while also providing excellent health care and increased contributions to a defined benefit pension plan," Stop & Shop said in a statement released Thursday.

For the second time, a presidential hopeful joined striking Stop & Shop workers on the picket line.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Indiana, visited with members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Friday afternoon in Malden.

"This largest private sector labor action strike in three years is sending a message that is going to ripple out far beyond New England. And the message is that companies have to do right by their workers," Buttigieg said.

His visit comes a day after former Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the union employees in Dorchester.

UFCW members at 240 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut went on strike on April 11 to protest what they call cuts to health care and take-home pay in the company's latest contract proposal.



"When you talk to the workers, this is not about them making a really aggressive ask and being beaten back. This is about a sense of erosion, a sense of being chipped away at in terms of benefits that they have counted on for their lives," Buttigieg said.

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Quincy-based Stop & Shop, a division of Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, says it is offering across-the-board raises and "excellent" health care benefits that beat industry standards.

"There is nothing we want more than having our associates back in the stores, taking care of customers and our communities. We have offered fair and responsible contracts and remain in active negotiations to reach new agreements as quickly as possible that keep our associates among the highest paid grocery retail workers in New England, while also providing excellent health care and increased contributions to a defined benefit pension plan," Stop & Shop said in a statement released Thursday.