Nearly all King Soopers employees in the Colorado Springs area joined their counterparts from metro Denver in approving a strike against the Denver-based grocery chain after their contracts expire Saturday.

Nearly 100% of King Soopers union employees vote to strike in Denver metro

The vote came as negotiations continue between King Soopers and the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 7 with talks scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

In three voting sessions Monday, Local 7 said 95% of retail employees and 97% of meat department employees in the Springs supported a possible strike over alleged unfair labor practices. Denver area members approved a strike nearly unanimously in voting Sunday.

Approval for a strike doesn’t mean a walkout will happen as soon as the contract expires at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, but union leaders now have the authority to launch a strike if no agreement is reached.

Some Local 7 contracts, including one covering meat department workers in Colorado Springs, don’t expire until Feb. 19. Talks continued for more than two months after a previous agreement expired in 2019 and Local 7 hasn’t conducted a strike since members walked off the job at Safeway for 1½ months in 1996.

Contract talks between King Soopers, union heat up with lawsuit

Both sides appear to be preparing for a strike.

King Soopers is advertising for “temporary workers as a precautionary measure due to a potential labor dispute with UFCW Local 7,” offering $18 an hour in pay. Local 7 posted a flyer on its website telling members it will pay them $160 a day if they picket full time and $80 for part-time picketing with an $800 weekly maximum and $100 a week for those who refuse to cross a picket line.

If there is a strike, it won’t cover all King Soopers stores — the company’s store in Monument and a City Market in Woodland Park are not represented by Local 7. The union also is still negotiating with Safeway, with talks scheduled through Saturday, and hasn’t yet scheduled a strike vote for members who work for that chain.

King Soopers to provide $2 per hour ‘hero bonus’

Local 7 and King Soopers began negotiating in October, but the talks became contentious last week when the union filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that King Soopers violated its contract by paying third-party contractors higher rates to stock shelves. King Soopers denied the allegations and said it was “disappointed” Local 7 went to court.

The day after the lawsuit was filed, King Soopers proposed to increase union member wages $145 million during the next four years, saying the offer would increase hourly wages for 75% of employees to more than $18 and more than half would earn more than $20 an hour. The union rejected the offer, alleging members would pay higher health care premiums and face reduced benefits if they accepted the offer.

King Soopers, union reach agreement to avert grocery strike

“King Soopers and its leadership continue to neglect and ignore the voices of the union and its employees,” Local 7 President Kim Cordova said Monday in a news release announcing the Denver area strike votes. “King Soopers and City Market have missed a golden opportunity to show workers and customers that as the industry leader, they want to make their stores the best places to work in Colorado.”

Local 7 is seeking a $6 an hour pay increase for King Soopers and City Market employees. The union said in an Oct. 21 letter to members that it has demanded the two chains, both owned by Cincinnati-based grocery giant Kroger, “significantly increase the bottom and top (pay) rates to keep up with Denver’s new minimum wage ($15.87 an hour) and to keep up with the high cost of living in Colorado.”

Besides its 17,000 members at King Soopers and City Market and workers at Safeway and Albertsons, Local 7 also represents employees at health care provider Kaiser Permanente, the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, three marijuana operations, and barbers at the Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and Peterson and Buckley Space Force bases in Colorado Springs and Denver.