Grocery strikes may be over, but workers still have to vote on new contracts
Tensions between Colorado’s two largest grocers and the union representing workers have nearly come to an end after two strikes this year.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 reached a tentative agreement with both King Soopers and Safeway, the Colorado chains operated by Kroger and Albertsons, for new contracts.
The agreement finalized Saturday marked the end of the strike against Safeway that lasted three weeks. It also meant the union isn’t planning to strike against King Soopers again following the February strike lasting 12 days.
So what’s next?
Unionized workers will vote and decide whether to approve the new contracts that took more than nine months to settle.
The union announced it will host ratification votes on Wednesday and Thursday for both contracts.
The grocers and the union have been fighting for months over setting a new contract, with the union claiming King Soopers and Safeway were working hand-in-hand to stifle workers’ benefits and wouldn’t properly address chronic understaffing, which the grocers denied.
The contracts with Safeway and King Soopers reached similar resolutions such as improved dental, vision and life insurance benefits, no cuts to retiree health care benefits, “strong” wage increases, limiting hiring of Doordash and Instacart gig workers, and creating a test-and-learn trial to study staffing at stores.
Full details of the contract have not been released but will be available at the ratification vote meetings, according to the union.
“We are pleased to have reached a fair and equitable agreement with the UFCW that will benefit our associates and allow us to continue to serve our customers in Colorado,” a Safeway spokesperson said in a statement.
FILE PHOTO: UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova addresses members of the media in a Safeway parking lot after King Soopers workers began striking in Denver, Colo. on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.
In an update to workers, King Soopers said the resolution was a “good agreement that delivers on our goals to invest in a market-competitive wage and benefits package that rewards you and helps to keep groceries affordable for the communities we serve.”
King Soopers also said in a separate post on Monday that a highlight of the agreement was the joint committee for staffing where the grocer’s new president, Chris Albi, who took over after Joe Kelley, will work closely with the committee.
King Soopers names new president as union negotiations still need 'much work'
“Anyone who knows me knows that I am always open to conversation, especially where it involves serving our customers and engaging our associates,” Albi said. “I look forward to piloting any joint recommendations of the committee in some of our stores to see what we can learn.”
The earlier strikes hit King Soopers on Valentine’s Day and Super Bowl Sunday — some of a grocery store’s most lucrative days in a slower month — and the strike against Safeway affected part of the Independence Day holiday weekend.
The union had amped up its strike by adding several Safeway stores a day to join the picketing instead of calling all stores at once to join in like it did with King Soopers.
The Safeway strike affected stores from Denver to Estes Park, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Fort Morgan, Pueblo and Grand Junction.