Denver
Unionized workers walked out at 5:00 a.m. on Feb. 6 in a two-week strike against 77 King Soopers stores in Colorado. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 struck stores in six counties that include the major cities of Denver, Boulder and Louisville.
Three King Soopers strikers, Denver, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Viviana Weinstein
In the strike authorization vote, UFCW members voted 96% in favor. The Unfair Labor Practice strike was called after contract negotiations that began in October 2024 failed. The contract expired in January.
Workers on the picket line say that Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers and a hugely profitable corporation, wants them to accept a contract that will take them backward. Kroger wants to reduce medical benefits, including for retirees, to compensate for wage increases. Stores have serious problems with understaffing, and yet the bosses give workers minimum work hours. The low staffing means workers are doing the job of at least two people which is unsafe and leads to injuries.
Workers who want to work full time are only given 16 hours a week and must work other jobs to survive. Productive workers leave, and that adds to problems on the job – customers can see that goods are in the aisles or in back with no one to put them on shelves, and prices are unmarked. On busy shopping days long lines form, because only a few registers are open.
The company has called for the union to allow workers to vote on the proposal that their negotiators rejected — an internal union matter that management should have no say in. To keep the stores open, on the day the strike began King Soopers brought in temporary workers as strikebreakers before 5:00 a.m.
Local 7 President Kim Cordova, who leads the negotiations which are open to all members, said: “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. … Kroger negotiators have illegally insisted on robbing retiree health care benefits to fund wage increases for workers today. … This company’s targeting fixed income retirees and other vulnerable people only compounds its history of targeting consumers with predatory pricing.” (Denver Post Feb. 3)