New England Stop & Shop workers approve contracts

FARMINGTON, Conn. (AP) — Stop & Shop workers have approved new three-year contracts covering 40,000 employees at the grocery chain's New England stores, heading off a potential strike.

Members of several local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union voted to approve the contract Sunday in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Specific details of the contract haven't been released, but union leaders say it contains pay raises and more affordable health care coverage for part-time workers. The labor deals are retroactive to Feb. 24.

The Quincy, Mass., supermarket chain says in a statement that it is pleased with the new contracts and called them fair and reasonable.

Management and union leaders reached a tentative deal last week. The company had begun looking for temporary workers in preparation for a strike.