King Soopers workers in Colorado plan two-week strike starting Thursday
Workers and community members form a picket line outside a Denver King Soopers, after United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 began a strike over stalled labor negotiations on Jan. 12, 2021. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
About 10,000 King Soopers workers from 77 stores in Colorado plan to go on strike for two weeks starting Thursday, after 96% of union members across the state voted to approve the action.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 workers have been in contract negotiations with King Soopers, which is owned by grocery giant Kroger, since October. The contract union members have been working under expired at the end of January. Kroger also operates City Market stores in Colorado.
The strike comes after the union filed several Unfair Labor Practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board related to issues with negotiations. The complaints allege King Soopers illegally interrogated union members about bargaining, refused to provide data related to pricing and staffing the union needed to consider proposals in negotiations, and threatened union members with discipline for wearing union gear, among other violations.
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'These are serious charges against Kroger-owned King Soopers. They have, and continue to, break the law and are trying to force us to accept a new contract that takes us backward,' Connor Hall, a Boulder King Soopers deli worker who is on the union bargaining team, said in a statement. 'That's not going to happen. Meanwhile we have real problems with low staffing, and low wages that make the jobs so bad that many of us can't even afford to shop where we work.'
UFCW Local 7 negotiators want higher staffing levels and wages to meet the cost of living in Colorado. The union said Kroger proposed cuts to health care benefits, as well as the pension program and retiree health care benefits to pay for 'meager wage increases for a few workers.' The union represents about 12,000 Kroger employees in Colorado and Wyoming.
Representatives for Kroger did not respond to a Newsline request for comment.
More than 8,000 Colorado King Soopers workers went on strike for just over a week in 2022 during negotiations on the three-year contract that expired at the end of January. A King Soopers worker filed a class action lawsuit in November alleging Kroger and Albertsons, which operates Safeway stores in Colorado, illegally colluded by entering into a 'no-poach' agreement during the strike.
The previous contract had a 'no strike clause,' but after it expired, the union initiated strike-authorization votes around the state.
Workers plan to strike at unionized King Soopers stores in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, as well as in Boulder and Louisville, after voting to authorize a strike last week. Workers in Colorado Springs and Pueblo voted over the weekend to authorize a strike, so those stores are not included in the strike starting Thursday, but could be included in potential expansions.
'This strike is about holding one of the largest corporations in America accountable when they break the law and cause harm to workers and our customers,' UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said in a statement. 'We are holding this strike for a two-week period to allow everyone to understand our concerns, and give the employer time to right their wrong.'
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