New Jersey union workers at Pathmark and A&P voted to cut their compensation in a deal that is meant to save their bankrupt employer, supermarket giant Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea operates more than 100 stores in New Jersey under the names A&P, Pathmark, Super Fresh and Food Basics, with more than 13,000 workers in the state.
Members at more than a dozen local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union voted on the deal Sunday, Monday and yesterday, approving it by a vote of 7,200-1,827.
The union members accepted a wage cut of about 3 percent, according to UFCW local 464A President John Niccollai.
“In the area of wages, I would urge our members to view this issue in the context of the adage: ‘Is the glass half empty or half full,’” said Niccollai in a message to his members. “In our case, with reference to wages, the glass is 97% full – a significant victory.”
The union also kept its health care plan free of a co-pay, Niccollai said.
Niccollai acknowledged that some members of his union didn’t like the deal, which gave up a week of vacation and some sick and personal days, but he said it was necessary for the company to get $490 million of debt and equity financing from private investors.
“We all understood, the company, the unions, the members that unless we combined our efforts to provide an infusion of capital, the company would not be able to continue,” Niccollai said. “The financing they obtained from Goldman Sachs and others was conditioned on both suppliers and the unions making accommodations.”