King Soopers Store Workers Set to Go on Strike
Starting at 5:00 a.m. Mountain Time on Thursday, Feb. 6, all unionized King Soopers store workers across Colorado’s Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties as well as at the Kroger banner’s locations in the cities of Boulder and Louisville, Colo., are scheduled to go on two-week strikes protesting what their union, UFCW Local 7, alleges are unfair labor practices.
Last week, these workers voted by 96% to authorize the strikes, following months of contract negotiations and the expiration of their labor contract in January. The strikes will involve around 10,000 workers at 77 stores.
According to Local 7, unfair labor practice (ULP) strikes are permitted under federal law when workers have tried to resolve a conflict or dispute with their employer and have formalized that complaint in a ULP charge against the employer with the National Labor Relations Board.
The union alleges such charges as illegally interrogating union members about its bargaining and surveilling members in discussions with union staff; illegally refusing to provide information necessary for the union to be able to make or consider proposals in contract negotiations, including sales data necessary for staffing proposals; illegally threatening members with discipline and sending home from work for wearing union clothing, buttons and other such gear; unlawfully insisting on gutting $8 million in retiree health benefit funds to pay for wage raises for active workers.
“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,” noted Kim Cordova, president of Local 7, which has offices in Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, Wheat Ridge, Grand Junction, Greeley and Pueblo, Colo. “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.”
Further, the company’s actions during a strike of King Soopers workers in 2022 are the subject of a lawsuit by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser for allegedly entering into an illegal “no-poach” agreement with Albertsons to undermine the striking workers.
Parent company Kroger has consistently refuted the union’s charges, noting that “[t]he company holds itself to the highest ethical standard and is confident that the union’s allegations of unfair labor practices are unfounded.” King Soopers has also vowed to keep stores open in the event of strikes.
UFCW Local 7 represents 23,000 union workers across Colorado and Wyoming, nearly 12,000 of whom are employed at King Soopers and City Market stores. Local 7 is affiliated with Washington, D.C.-based United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents more than 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada, making it one of the largest private-sector unions in North America.
The Kroger Family of Companies’ nearly 420,000 associates serve more than 11 million customers daily through a digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names. The Cincinnati-based grocer is No. 4 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named Kroger one of its Retailers of the Century.