DENVER — King Soopers officials announced Tuesday they’re seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) against thousands of striking employees, claiming that picketing outside the stores has created “unsafe conditions” for both shoppers and staff.
“Safety is a core value for us, and we have the responsibility to keep our customers and communities safe, as well as our associates that are on the picket line that are acting professionally," said Joe Kelley, division president of King Soopers.
According to Kelley, there have been more than 300 instances of "compromising behavior" across the 77 Denver metro stores since the strike began last week.
"We have had folks lay down behind some of our tractor-trailers, not letting the trailers get into the loading docks, which is dangerous in itself. We have some drivers that were threatened. We also have had front entrances blocked where customers feel harassed. They are not allowed to enter the building," he told Denver7.
Kent Henry, a King Soopers customer, said some of what Kelley described happened to him.
"It’s a form of harassment that doesn’t need to be happening," Henry said.
He said he and his son were approached by a picketer as they tried to enter the store and University Blvd. and Hampden Ave.
"One of the picketers approached us and said, ‘Hey, you guys can’t go in. The store is closed.’ And I kind of looked at my son and was like, 'I don’t think that’s right.' So, I went around the corner. As we were walking in, a group of them were talking under their breath and laughing at us and it’s just the fact that I don’t think that’s very appropriate.”
In the complaint for a TRO, King Soopers alleges, "The picketing has included multiple incidents of picketers impeding ingress and egress to parking lots and stores."
It also alleges, "The picketing has included multiple incidents of picketers falsely telling customers that stores are closed in instances where those stores were not in fact closed..."
Kelley told Denver7 safety was jeopardized, which is why legal action was being taken.
In response to the legal filing, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 Union (UCFW) released a statement, calling the move "another attempt to silence and intimidate 10,000 grocery store workers."
- You can view the full list of allegations King Soopers levied against the picketers here or in the document below.
“The Company is asking a court to stop striking workers from doing what striking workers do: Picketing in front of their workplaces and speaking with one voice, a voice that the company is currently stifling by refusing to negotiate in good faith,” wrote Monique Palacios, a spokesperson for UFCW Local 7. “This TRO represents nothing more than another attempt to silence and intimidate 10,000 grocery store workers for exercising their right to fight for better staffing, better health care, and more safety and against the Company's Unfair Labor Practices.”
Calling the move against its employees “galling,” Palacios alleges that the company “literally complains that workers who are picketing in subzero weather are using portable heating devices.”
Arguments on both sides were heard in Denver City and County Civil Court Thursday. Clerks from Denver District Court told Denver7 the case was continued until Thursday.
"To each his own if you want to be in a union and you want to strike," Henry said. "But when you start harassing the people that are your customers, that are there when you do have a job and you’re representing your union — I think there should just be more professionalism. Maybe the union leaders need to interact more with their employees about having respect for customers no matter what."
King Soopers and UCFW Local 7 will meet at Denver District Court for a hearing about this temporary restraining order on Thursday at 1 p.m.
More than 10,000 King Soopers employees at 77 locations across the Denver metro area began striking on Feb. 6, after months of back and forth over a new contract that both parties ultimately could not agree to. Workers in Pueblo began their strike a day later.
The strike from UCFW Local 7 Union is in response to what its president, Kim Cordova, said is a laundry list of unfair labor practices.
“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,” Cordova said. “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.
Tuesday’s TRO is the second time in as many weeks that King Soopers has taken UCFW to court.
A day after the strike began, King Soopers filed a federal lawsuit against the union, accusing them of forcing the company to bargain with labor unions outside of Colorado.
“We know this Kroger-owned corporation would much rather distract the public with lawfare than have an open and honest discussion about the woeful lack of staffing in stores which has led to empty shelves, long lines, and price-gouging for customers and unsafe working conditions for workers,” Palacios said in a statement Tuesday. “We won't be so easily distracted.”
Kelley told Denver7 in a previous interview 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 he described as the company’s “last, best and final offer." On Tuesday, he again called on union representatives to resume talks and end the strike.
“We know the only place this work stoppage is resolved is at the bargaining table and remain open to meeting with the UFCW Local 7,” he said. Kelley also called for picketing activities to be “conducted in a manner that prioritizes safety.”
In response, Cordova said the strike would continue as planned.
"We were on the strike lines today, we will be on the strike lines tomorrow, and we continue to urge King Soopers to stop these unfair labor practices," Cordova said.
Denver7's Claire Lavezzorio and Russell Haythorn contributed to this report.
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