King Soopers Workers Voting on Strikes Across Colorado

Workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers and City Markets in metropolitan Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Pueblo are currently voting on whether to authorize a strike after their union contract expired last week.

Metro Denver workers are voting today, January 30, while those in Colorado Springs will vote tomorrow, January 31, and workers in Pueblo are set to vote February 1. Some metro Denver workers have already finished voting, doing so on January 29.

Kroger workers last initiated a strike in Colorado in 2022. Metro Denver workers held out for ten days that January before earning raises from the company and returning to work. The union contract they agreed to with Kroger included a “no strike clause” that expired on January 17 after the two sides could not agree on terms for contract renewal.

Now workers will decide if they want to strike in order to achieve their desired terms, which include measures to address staffing issues, improved health-care benefits and increased wages to match Colorado's cost of living.

The Colorado Kroeger employees are unionized through the United Food and Commercial Workers. Local 7, the Colorado branch, has a 37-member bargaining committee representing workers across the state led by Kim Cordova, UFCW Local 7 president.

“It is unfortunate that the negotiations have come to this,” Cordova said in a statement earlier this month. “We started meeting with the company in October with clear goals of necessary wage increases so workers could afford to live in our state, maintain decent health and retirement benefits, and resolve a staffing crisis that is causing daily strife for workers and customers alike. The company’s proposal fails on all fronts.”

The contract was originally set to expire on January 5, but the union agreed to an extension until 11:59 p.m. on January 16. The extra eleven days weren’t enough to reach an agreement even though negotiations lasted into the evening on January 16, according to Local 7.

On January 16, King Soopers shared what the company called its “last, best and final” offer for a four-year contract with the union. The proposal included “$4.50/hour [raises] over the life of the contract for Top Rate associates (excluding courtesy clerks), department heads and Pharmacy Techs.” The company said it would provide affordable health care, keep pensions for workers and hold meetings about staffing concerns along with workplace violence prevention training.

Additionally, King Soopers said it would add sanitation clerk and hourly manager roles to at least twenty stores over the next four years.

Workers say those terms do not represent actual improvements to safety standards or staffing issues in stores, and that the company’s proposal required employees to decide whether to lose health-care benefits now or in the future rather than preserving benefits. Additionally, they say the contract would actually cut wages for some employees and allow Kroger to outsource some union jobs to gig workers.

“None of us expect to get rich working in a grocery store,” Carol McMillian, a King Soopers worker from Aurora, said in a January 17 statement. “What we do expect is that we will make enough money to buy food at the same store we work at, that we can pay for a place to live, have decent health care and retirement, and that our employer will staff the stores with enough of us so we can get our jobs done and serve our customers’ needs. So far, their proposals fail to accomplish that.”

Joe Kelley, president of King Soopers and City Market in Colorado, told the Denver Post that the company believes Cordova is really the one who has bargained in bad faith, arguing the union never came back with compromise proposals.

“The Company has consistently bargained in good faith, putting forward comprehensive offers that prioritize associates’ needs and ensure operational stability,” King Soopers said in the announcement of its final offer.

But the union begs to differ, arguing in a statement that Kroger’s actions have been disrespectful and deceptive to workers and may even constitute breaches of union bargaining law. According to the union, poor staffing has led to many problems for customers.

“The company’s proposals to workers are likewise inadequate, proposing cuts to health-care benefits, slashing seniority-based scheduling benefits which will only further erode staffing in the stores, and a wage offer that is far too low to live in Colorado,” the union says. “The Company is also proposing to rob retiree health benefits and underfund the pension plan in order to pay for meager wage increases for a few workers.”

According to a statement from Cordova, a strike authorization is the necessary next step since King Soopers hasn’t been willing to do the right thing. There is no set date for when a strike could take place if workers vote to authorize one.