Stop & Shop strike comes to an end

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Loralee Begin, an employee at the Stop & Shop in Naugatuck, leads fellow employees in a chant as they picket outside of the store on April 12. Stop & Shop employees across three states went on strike for 11 days. –LUKE MARSHALL

Stop & Shop employees have ended their strike.

Though workers were back in stores by 7 a.m. Monday to scrub away the detritus left by the 11-day strike, it will take several days for stores to replenish their produce, meat and dairy stocks.

Thirty-one thousand Stop & Shop employees represented by five United Food & Commercial Workers Local Unions in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts went on strike April 11 following months of contract negotiations with Ahold Delhaize, Stop & Shop’s corporate owner.

The strike crippled 294 stores across the three states through Easter, typically a busy period for grocery retailers. Though many stores were open during the strike, unionized delivery drivers refused to deliver fresh perishable items during the strike.

Stores in Waterbury, Naugatuck, Watertown, Cheshire, Torrington, Litchfield, North Canaan, Southbury and Winsted were affected.

Workers said they were fighting to prevent their wages, health insurance and pension plans from being stripped.

Details of the new labor agreement won’t be released until after the local unions hold a ratification vote later this week, but employees on Monday said the new agreement will look similar to the old one.