Stop & Shop Reaches Tentative Agreement With Workers' Union

BOSTON (AP) — Stop & Shop has reached a tentative agreement with unionized workers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

The Massachusetts-based supermarket chain says it reached the agreements for new contracts with the five local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers union that represent workers in those three states this weekend. Details of the accords were not immediately released.

The union, which represents some 35,000 Stop and Shop workers, said in a statement that the agreement represents a "victory" for "working people in New England." The agreements still require approval by union members. Local meetings are being scheduled, union officials say.

The two sides have been negotiating since January. The previous contract expired in February. Union workers had authorized a strike in the event of an impasse.