by KYW's David Madden
Acme supermarkets are being threatened with a strike for the second time this year. This time, stores in South Jersey are the primary target.
About 2,500 members of UFCW Local 1360 have been without a contract since late April. Their next negotiation session with Acme’s parent company is on November 19th.
Union president Sam Ferraino says that if things don’t improve, he is ready to take his members out -- a week before Thanksgiving:
"We’ve waited long enough. It’s been since April 25th, and this process has been long and it’s been tedious and it’s been dragged out. And the members felt that it’s at that time when we need a deal."
He says a key issue in the dispute is health care:
"We were able to reduce the cost to the company, upon ratification, if we created a new health and welfare fund, by 2.4 million dollars. But the company won’t do it."
Salaries are also on the table. Local 1360 covers Acme Markets in South Jersey (except Atlantic County) .as well as some stores in Lower Bucks County.
Ferraino says that if his members walk, they could also form picket lines outside Acme stores in Southeastern Pennsylvania, where a strike was averted this summer:
"We would take the fight across the river, and it would be up to them to honor the pickets, which I would hope they would."
(File photo)
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