Spirited picket lines are up at 79 King Soopers grocery stores in Colorado after 10,000 workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, walked off the job Feb. 6 and 7. The chain, owned by Kroger, is the top grocer in the area. Workers at every location voted overwhelmingly to strike for two weeks when contract negotiations over work conditions and wages broke down. The union says the strike can be extended if needed.
“Workers are being asked to do the jobs of two, three, four workers,” Kim Cordova, president of Local 7, told the Denver Post, explaining that the union’s number one issue is inadequate staffing. There aren’t enough people to stock shelves, or to keep the deli, meat and bakery areas open, or enough cashiers.
“You do have to stand up for what you believe in,” Bellarose Moorse, who works in the floral area of one Denver store, told CBS News Colorado. “Sometimes in my department, it’s just me by myself.” Abdarahmane Gaye, an overnight stocker, said. “There’s a lot of load. There’s not enough people.”
The bosses’ “last, best and final offer” included a $4.50 hourly wage increase over four years for the highest-paid workers. But there was a big catch. “Kroger negotiators have illegally insisted on robbing retiree health care benefits to fund wage increases for workers today,” Cordova said.
Leading up to the strike the company interrogated union members and spied on their discussions, Monique Palacios, a union spokesperson said in a Feb. 5 press release. They were “illegally threatening members with discipline and sending them home from work for simply exercising their union right to wear union clothing, buttons and other union gear.”
While King Soopers is trying to undercut support for the strike, including trying to tell shoppers that higher food prices are because of the union, many aren’t buying it. “I’m about to go across the street now,” Ashley Anderson, a mom with her two children, told CBS News as she left a Denver King Soopers parking lot to go to a Safeway.
Lorna Hutchinson was shopping at the Safeway Feb. 6, even though she usually shops at King Soopers. “It’s also just kind of a collective solidarity,” she said.
Bosses say they will keep the stores open during the strike. “We have about 1,500 temporary workers in our stores, on the ground already trained,” King Soopers President Joe Kelley told the press. “Any associate who chooses to continue to work is welcome.”
It took a hard-fought 10-day strike by Local 7 to win their contract at King Soopers in 2022. Kroger, the country’s second-largest grocer, had profits of over $33 billion in 2024.
King Soopers has accused the union of timing the strike to include Super Bowl weekend and Valentine’s Day, both high-business occasions. “Absolutely,” Cordova said, “because the only thing they understand is their profit.”