King Soopers union rallies, calls management back to negotiating table

DENVER — To a chorus of supportive car horns behind them, about 100 King Soopers union workers held a rally Thursday across the street from one of the Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Denver grocery stores in an effort to win better pay, benefits and safety precautions. 

The event, attended by local politicos and union leaders, marked the second day more than 8,000 United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 from nearly 80 King Soopers locations throughout metro Denver and the Boulder Valley — including employees in Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville and Westminster — have been on strike. 

“We’re fired up and we’re fed up,” UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova said.

At other King Soopers locations in the region and in Northern Colorado, employment contracts have yet to expire, but an expansion of the strike is possible in the coming weeks. 

 “There are three things that I hear that the King Soopers workers want,” Colorado AFL-CIO executive director Dennis Dougherty said. “First, a fair return on the essential work that they provide. Second, safety in the workplace to go into work and not have to worry that you’re going to make it home that night. The third is to be treated with some dignity and respect. That’s why we’re here today.”

King Soopers and UFCW have been attempting to hammer out a new contract for weeks, but so far Local 7’s demands for increased pay, better benefits, the elimination of a two-tiered salary system that punishes newly hired works, job outsourcing to non-union workers and stronger health and safety protections in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been met, the union said. 

“These people are loyal; they’re people, Colorado people,” King Soopers bakery manager Carol McMillian said of the strikers. “We’re a family. We’re not just some little widget you can kick to the side when you’re done using us up.”

King Soopers said on Tuesday that it had made what it calls it’s “last, best and final offer” to the union, which includes the “investment of $170 million over the next three years [that] includes wage investments plus ratification bonuses for all associates.” 

The company said it has “also proposed an additional investment in health care benefits that would result in zero impact to associates current health care premiums based upon the current projections – premiums that have not increased in 12 years if this agreement is ratified. This offer not only puts more money in associates’ pockets but, if accepted, promises to bring stability to our associates and Coloradans who have endured enough uncertainty and disruption.”

UFCW Local 7 rejected the offer.

Each side has accused the other of dirty dealing at the negotiating table. In fact, the union sued the grocer in late December, alleging that King Soopers engaged in unfair labor practices by bringing on third-party, non-union workers to perform work ceded to the union as part of its collective bargaining agreement. 

For its part, King Soopers is also levying unfair labor practice allegations against the union, “for its bad faith bargaining and tactics as well as pursuing other legal action for unlawful conduct,” the company said. 

The union, a King Soopers spokesperson said this week, is “putting politics before people.”

UFCW Local 7 leaders said Thursday that they’ve sent a letter to King Soopers management requesting that they return to the bargaining table on Friday.

“The picket lines will remain up as the bargaining committee negotiates,” Cordova said in a prepared statement. “We remain committed to honoring the near-unanimous vote by Local 7 members to strike against the company for unfair labor practices. And we will continue until the company proves it will treat essential workers with the dignity they deserve.” 

King Soopers says it plans to remain open during the strike and signage inside the store advertises for temporary replacement gigs that pay as much as $18 an hour.

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