King Soopers and its employees failed Thursday to extend a labor contract set to expire Saturday.
King Soopers workers proposed a 10-week extension of the current contract so the two sides can continue negotiations toward a new one.
The company offered an extension through June 15, similar to one that Safeway announced Thursday that it had reached with its workers.
But King Soopers workers, represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local No. 7, rejected that, setting the stage for the old agreement to expire at midnight Saturday.
What the impasse means isn’t exactly clear. In theory, the two sides could keep talking and workers could keep working without a contract in place.
“It doesn’t mean that there has to be a strike, and I hope there isn’t one,” said Diane Mulligan, a spokeswoman for King Soopers.
King Soopers workers, for their part, said they are afraid the company with 24 hours’ notice could initiate a lockout that would bar employees from entering stores to work. That became a possibility after Safeway workers authorized a strike this month. King Soopers workers, however, have not yet authorized a strike.
“The company is profitable, and we want to keep talking,” said Julie Collier, a checker who has worked at King Soopers for 20 years. “We want to come to a fair contract. We don’t want to be locked out.”
Wages, the pension fund and a two- tier system that pays new employees on a lower scale than more veteran ones remain areas of contention.
The company said it needs the two- tier system to compete with nonunion grocers such as Wal-Mart that control 40 percent of the Denver market.
“We really hope the union will focus on the current economic realities,” Mulligan said.
With consumers buying more groceries rather than eating out, King Soopers parent Kroger can afford a unified wage scale, the union counters.
Susan McKnight returned to work at King Soopers at an hourly wage $2.50 higher than she made as a teenager working at the store 20 years ago.
“The minimum wage has gone up more than that,” she said. “We are not here to make Kroger rich on our backs.”
The company wants to raise the early-retirement age from 50 to 55 and to adjust pension benefits to reflect the stock market’s hit to the pension fund.
The union wants the company to give the pension a year to recover before adjusting any benefits.
No further discussions were scheduled as of Thursday evening.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
