Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 voted overwhelmingly to strike in advance of the union’s contract with The Kroger Co. expiring Jan. 8. Kroger owns King Soopers and City Market stores. It operates 143 grocery stores, 97 convenience stores, nine jewelry stores and eight manufacturing and distribution facilities that employ more than 22,500 people in Colorado. The union represents about 17,000 of those workers.

The strike started at 5 a.m. Wednesday at most metro Denver stores.

What is the strike over?

Alleged unfair labor practices on the part of King Soopers and City Market.

What’s the union’s position?

Workers are demanding better pay and work conditions. The union sued the supermarket giant in federal court, alleging 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.

Union representatives have asked for security guards since 2018 and demanded information from the company, like how many times police were deployed to stores in recent years. Other issues have centered on health care, full-time jobs and seniority.

What’s King Soopers/City Market’s position?

Tuesday’s “last, best and final” offer from Kroger included $170 million in wage increases over the next three years, and “ratification bonuses” for all employees. The offer before that was $148 million over the next three years.

Company officials said a checker making $19.51 an hour would make $22.61 an hour over the next three years under the proposed contract.

“For a full-time checker, their annual compensation would be over $47,000 annually, in addition to their industry-leading healthcare and pension benefits,” according to a news release. Employees’ health care premiums have not gone up for 12 years, according to Kroger.

The offer Tuesday still didn’t increase the proposed minimum starting wage of $16 per hour, a huge point of contention with union representatives since temporary workers the company brought in to replace striking workers are being paid $18 per hour.

Why didn’t the union accept Kroger’s “last, best, final offer” Tuesday?

Representatives said the offer was riddled with problematic concessions, including:

• Allowing for a new subclass of gig workers to steal hours and drain the health fund for long-term King Soopers associates.
• Allowing for King Soopers to use deli workers to cover shifts for stockers and fuel clerks and vice versa to do jobs they were not trained or have minimum experience in.
• Restricting employees’ ability to work overtime.
• Suppressing the voice of the workers through proposals designed to cripple the union.
• Allowing the company to lower wages at its whim.
• Shortening the time for workers to be on leave of absence or injured.
• Refusing to address workers’ proposals to end a two-tier discrimination system in their contracts.
• Inadequate safety proposals that fail to ensure stores are safe for workers and customers.

Why is the strike only scheduled to last until Feb. 2?

Economic strikes take place over issues such as wages and benefits, according to law.jrank.org. An unfair labor practice strike occurs when workers strike over an employer’s unfair labor practice, particularly the refusal to negotiate. Colorado law caps unfair labor practice strikes at three weeks.

Why are only metro Denver stores impacted?

More than 8,700 workers at 78 Denver metro area stores walked out Wednesday morning. Colorado Springs stores are not included in the strike, as meat workers there still have a contract through Feb. 19. Employees at Western Slope stores also are not included in the strike. The contract for retail members at Pueblo stores expires Jan. 22. Contracts for Grand Junction and Clifton retail workers and meat cutters expire Jan. 29. Contracts for meat cutters in the following cities expire Feb. 19: Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont, Loveland and Pueblo.

What stores are impacted?

King Soopers and City Market stores in the following cities are impacted by the strike: Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Centennial, Commerce City, Denver, Edgewater, Englewood, Evergreen, Federal Heights, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Golden, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Littleton, Louisville, Thornton, Westminster and Wheat Ridge.

Will any stores close?

Kroger officials vowed Wednesday not to close any stores because of the strike.

Union representatives have said Kroger Co. is hugely profitable. True?

Kroger’s operating profits for the first three quarters of 2021 totaled $2.51 billion, down 14.5% from the same period in 2020. Operating profits excluded nearly $700 million in investment losses and nearly $1 billion in investment profits during the same period in 2020, according to annual and quarterly reports.

The company’s operating profit in 2020 was $2.59 billion, up 23.5% from 2019. The $4.06 billion number Local 7 is using is after subtracting one-time costs, including nearly $1 billion Kroger agreed to pump into the union’s pension fund. Kroger said it expects to generate between $4.1 billion and $4.2 billion in operating profits for all of 2021 after similar adjustments.

When was the last time UFCW Local 7 walked out?

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. Before that, the union’s last strike was in 1987, according to union representatives.

Business Reporter Wayne Heilman contributed to this report.