Recognizing the Stop and Shop strike as an important moment in the labor movement, many of us became stakeholders and showed our solidarity. For one UHP member it was about even more than that.
Going on strike is a part of the labor movement that most of us as public employees can’t relate to because it’s not a legal option for us. But for Megan McCreesh, it was the only option.
In addition to her full-time job as a supply coordinator at UConn Health, Megan works part-time at the customer service desk at the Stop and Shop in Unionville. She is a proud member of both UHP and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 919. Her parents both retired from Stop and Shop after a combined 93 years of service.
“Twelve years doing both jobs, and no union’s ever done me wrong,” she said. “They protect my rights. They protect things that I worked hard for.”
During the strike Megan would work her full-time job, then during her scheduled part-time shifts she was on strike, walking the lines with her Stop and Shop coworkers.
“We’re united,” Megan said from the picket line on day nine of the strike. “We’re doing this to prove the point to Stop and Shop: We’re here, we’re not going to back down, we’re doing what we have to do. We made them who we are, we have the customers’ support. There are other places they could shop, and they have been.”
The community support for the striking workers went a long way in helping them achieve a fair contract.