DENVER — Hundreds of King Soopers employees across the Front Range plan to walk off the job and form picket lines outside their stores beginning Thursday as they demand an end to what they claim are unfair labor practices levied by the grocery chain.
The announcement from representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 Union states picketing will begin at 5 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 6. Employees at unionized King Soopers stores throughout Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties as well as King Soopers stores in the cities of Boulder and Louisville, will join the strike said UCFW spokeswoman Monique Palacios.
The strike, which was voted on in the late hours of Thursday, comes after months of failed negotiations between the Denver-based grocer and union employees at the company, who formalized the unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
“There are multiple Unfair Labor Practice charges we have filed against King Soopers over the last several months. These range from illegal intimidation of workers by the employer to the employer’s failure to provide needed information on staffing to allow for the union to prepare a comprehensive proposal to resolve the staffing crisis in King Soopers’ stores,” said UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova in a statement. “Kroger negotiators have illegally insisted on robbing retiree health care benefits to fund wage increases for workers today. Sadly, this Company’s targeting of fixed-income retirees and other vulnerable populations only compounds its history of targeting consumers with predatory pricing.”
Denver7 has been covering the negotiation talks between the union and King Soopers for the past several months, including the report below in which we took a deeper look at the final contract the grocer offered employees.
Joe Kelley, the president of King Soopers/City Market, told Denver7 last week he was doing everything he could to avoid a strike, including a $4.50-an-hour increase over the duration of a proposed 4-year contract, which Kelley described as the company’s “last, best and final offer.”
"We've had 13 sessions with Local 7, and although we've given them our proposal back on December 4 — a very, we think, aggressive, comprehensive offer, increase in wages, increase in pension, maintaining our health care plans for our associates — unfortunately, they're stalling, and we don't understand why," Kelley told Denver7 earlier this month.
Chris Lacey, a service manager who works for the company at a location in Littleton, however, said King Soopers has been the one holding up progress for months.”
“King Soopers has been understaffing our stores for years – harming workers and customers – and when we have tried to resolve that harm in negotiations the company has illegally withheld information we need to make our proposals and respond to their proposals. And now they have the gall to say we are stalling?” Lacey said.
Cordova said the strike will take place over the span of two weeks, “to allow everyone to understand our concerns, and give the employer time to right their wrong.”
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