Former Vice President Joe Biden made no mention of a presidential run but warned of the excesses of corporate capitalism at a rally with striking Stop & Shop workers in Dorchester Thursday.
"I know you're used to political speeches, and I'm a politician, I get it, but it's way beyond that, guys. This is way beyond that," Biden told the crowd. "This is wrong. This is morally wrong what's going on around this country. And I've had enough of it. I'm sick of it, and so are you."
Biden made several references to his father, a businessman and union worker whom the former vice president mentions often, as he spoke to the hundreds of workers and union representatives in the Stop & Shop parking lot at the South Bay Center. He is widely expected to soon announce a presidential run.
Since April 11, about 31,000 Stop & Shop workers from across New England have been striking in protest of what they call unfair contract negotiations with the grocery store's Dutch parent company, Ahold Delhaize.
Among the chief concerns for workers are rising health care costs, a lack of pay raises and shrinking pensions.
Biden said the Stop & Shop workers' situation was "not unique" and was "happening all over corporate America."
"This parent company made $4 billion in the last two years. They got almost $250 million in a tax cut with that scam that the president put through," Biden said.
UFCW President Marc Perrone said in a statement that, "Stop & Shop and its parent company make billions of dollars in profits and offer pennies to its workers and their families. It is wrong and it must stop."
In a statement following the rally, Stop & Shop said that company leaders "have offered fair and responsible contracts and remain in active negotiations to reach new agreements as quickly as possible that keep our associates among the highest paid grocery retail workers in New England, while also providing excellent health care and increased contributions to a defined benefit pension plan."
Biden said his father instilled in him the belief that all people deserve to be treated with "dignity."
"Wall Street bankers and CEOs did not build America," Biden said. "Ordinary, middle-class people built America. And guys, that's not hyperbole. That's just a simple fact."
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh also took the stage to express support for the workers.
"What is happening is wrong. Just plain wrong," Markey said. "Stop & Shop's parent company should be ashamed of proposing drastic and unreasonable cuts to benefits and take-home pay for the UFCW workers."
Walsh said he has one message for Stop & Shop's parent company: "Sit down at the table and negotiate a contract, and respect the people that make the money for your corporate office."
Ray Stevens, 54, a meat cutter at the Grove Hall location who has worked at Stop & Shop for 30 years, said he has been on the picket line for 12 hours a day, and would be for "as long as it takes." Stevens said his wife will lose her health insurance under the company's proposed contract.
"We just want a fair contract," said Kevin Martins, a manager who has worked at Stop & Shop for 15 years. "Just what we have. What's fair. Fifteen years I've been working here, I don't need anything taken away from me."
