Stop and Shop grocery stores in Massachusetts are betting you need a job bad enough to scab. They are in contract talks with a few United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) locals 445, 328, 371, 1459, and 919. But Stop & Shop is taking an adversarial and confrontational position by placing advertisements in local papers, announcing the company is hiring temporary replacement workers for $12 an hour.

This tactic is unnecessary and unproductive. Stop & Shop should focus its energy into negotiating a good contract with the local workers it already has -- the same workers who have made Stop & Shop the number one supermarket in the areas in which it operates. Those workers and their communities deserve the company’s loyalty in return, not scare tactics that needlessly frighten workers and customers. Stop & Shop can and should do better by its workers and customers.