King Soopers strike continues through freezing temperatures
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DENVER — Halfway through their planned two-week walkout, thousands of unionized King Soopers employees across the Front Range continue to strike despite the freezing temperatures.
The strike began Feb. 6. Approximately 10,000 employees at 77 Denver Metro stores are participating in the labor stoppage. Workers in Pueblo started striking a day later.
“It's unfair. Labor practices and safety issues are pretty important,” said Gigi Jones, a front-end supervisor at King Soopers who has worked for the grocer since 2013. “We all want raises, and we all want our health care safe. We want to make sure that our pension stays intact.”
A subsidiary of Kroger, King Soopers dominates the grocery market in the Denver area. Negotiations between King Soopers and union employees started in October. The negotiations stalled and the previous labor contract between the entities expired Jan 5. The union, UFCW Local 7, rejected what King Soopers called its “last, best and final” offer — which included a raise for some, but not all, workers — and the offer expired Jan. 31.
The union announced the strike in a statement that included details about what the union is calling “unfair labor practices,” including allegations that King Soopers interrogated bargaining committee members and withheld information from union workers.
King Soopers has since sued the union for “unlawfully forcing the Company to bargain with labor unions from Washington and California – that do not represent its associates – to push an impermissible agenda at the bargaining table,” according to a Feb. 10 statement.
At the King Soopers location in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, striking workers are posted outside the store 24 hours a day, wearing signs around their necks with the message: “Please do not patronize King Soopers.”
Employees strike during their assigned work hours, which means some picket overnight. The shifts are from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Jones said there are representatives and captains at every shift that employees can refer to for safety. They have an emergency call line and text group for strikers who encounter problems such as threats or weather risks.
“We’re out here, we’re being peaceful, we just want to get our voices heard,” said Alonso Reisinger, one of the strike captains at the Capitol Hill location.
Although temperatures across the Front Range dropped to the single digits this week, strikers remained on the picket line overnight.
“The strategy is will, anger and food,” said Jones.
Jones has been cooking for her strike crew, bringing a big pot of soup for lunch so that the employees have something warm.
Three canisters of propane heaters sat on the edge of the parking lot, where many strikers huddled together as they fought the cold temperatures. Strikers took shifts, some standing at the front entrance of King Soopers encouraging shoppers to go to Safeway instead of crossing the picket line.
Other strikers continued to walk around the block with signs around their necks.
The strike affects daily operations inside the store. The meat and seafood department was not staffed Feb. 11, when Rocky Mountain PBS interviewed Jones and Reisinger. The counters were empty.
King Soopers is turning to temporary workers while the unionized employees are on strike.
“We have an obligation to the community to make sure they have access to fresh and affordable food and pharmacy services, so we’ve gone ahead and hired temporary staff to come and help us serve the community at this time,” King Soopers spokesperson Jessica Trowbridge told The Colorado Sun.
Jones claimed that King Soopers is housing temporary workers in hotel rooms and paying them higher wages than what the unionized workers make.
“If you can imagine putting all that money towards us and maintaining or slightly upping what we have now, we probably wouldn't be here.”
Rocky Mountain PBS reached out to King Soopers for comment but did not hear back.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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