Union sues King Soopers for allegedly allowing non-union employees to do work covered by CBA

DENVER — The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, the union that represents King Soopers grocery workers across the Front Range, including in Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley, is suing the company for allegedly bringing on third-party, non-union workers to perform work ceded to the union as part of its collective bargaining agreement. 

According to the lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Denver, King Soopers contracted with staffing company Retail Odyssey Co., employees of which were observed in stores around Denver and Colorado Springs performing functions such as stocking shelves. 

The union’s contract prohibits non-union workers from being hired to perform most tasks beyond sanitation and floor cleaning.  

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“This is just the latest actions by King Soopers to show a lack of appreciation for the workers who have stood by them before and during this pandemic,” UFCW vice president Kim Cordova said in a prepared statement. “Despite a record year in profits, the company is choosing to hire outside workers for their store instead of offering current and prospective workers a competitive wage rate sufficient to attract new workers.”

By ignoring the collective bargaining agreement, King Soopers is filling a human resources void with workers for whom it needn’t provide benefits, UFCW claims. This allows King Soopers to pay these non-union workers — who the union calls scabs — more than UFCW members, damaging the union’s negotiating position. 

“The alleged lack of bargaining unit workers available at current wage rates places substantial economic pressure on the defendant to negotiate higher wage rates in the successor agreements. By circumventing the bargaining unit work protections, King Soopers is artificially limiting economic pressures to raise wages,” said the lawsuit, which cites observed incidents of CBA violations in stores in Lakewood, Golden and Greenwood Village.

In response to a BizWest query, a King Soopers spokeswoman said in an email, “While we are disappointed that the UFCW Local 7 has filed a lawsuit instead of following the grievance and arbitration process outlined in our collective bargaining agreement, we cannot comment on pending litigation.”

Earlier this week, King Soopers claims to have offered the union a new contract that includes the addition of $145 million in new wages over the next four years. The Kroger-owned grocery chain said that under the deal, 75% of associates would earn an average hourly wage or at least $18, with more than 50% of employees earning more than $20 per hour. 

“We will continue to do everything we can to balance investments in wages and overall well-being while keeping food affordable for our customers. We remain committed to our people and our Colorado community,” King Soopers president Joe Kelley said in a statement. 

The union takes issue with the sincerity of that commitment. 

“Throughout the past few months of negotiations, King Soopers and its representatives have offered concessionary proposals instead of making sure that these essential workers are respected, protected, and paid what they deserve,” Cordova said in a statement. “It’s sad to see that instead of taking care of their own workers, King Soopers is choosing to outsource jobs and prepare to hire scabs — and offer to pay them more than current workers. We will not let this treatment continue. That is why we have filed this lawsuit against King Soopers demanding that they stop hiring outside workers in violation of our current contract guidelines.”

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