With grocery workers laboring without contracts at two supermarket chains and with a deal about to expire at another, union officials representing 17,000 employees said they are hopeful they can avert a strike by returning to the bargaining table quickly.
No new bargaining sessions had been scheduled as of Thursday between the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 and management at King Soopers, Albertsons and Safeway stores.
The stores negotiate independently.
Union workers have worked without contracts at King Soopers and Albertsons for weeks, and the current agreement at Safeway stores, already extended once during negotiations, expires today.
Union members at Safeway stores rejected the store’s offer Wednesday. Workers at King Soopers rejected that company’s offer last week.
With no deal, according to King Soopers spokeswoman Diane Mulligan, there are no longer negotiating deadlines.
Nevertheless, union officials are optimistic that talks will resume and a strike can be avoided. Unions at Safeway stores have authorized a strike.
“We’re at a hopeful point in terms of the corporation coming back with a better offer,” UFCW local spokeswoman Laura Chapin said. “The workers … want to keep negotiating and work out a fair deal, and we are hoping the corporation will meet us halfway.”
The union has asked Safeway to establish dates to resume bargaining.
At issue is a five-year contract that, union members say, fails to provide “livable wages and a secure retirement.”
Employees said they object to proposed wage cuts as well as trims in pension and health care, especially in light of the grocers’ recent profits.
If a strike occurs, grocers have a battery of temporary replacement workers they’ve identified since May. The new hires would ensure stores remain open.
King Soopers has 3,500 replacement employees at the ready, but since union members there have not authorized a strike, a walkout is unlikely, Mulligan said.
Sara Castellanos: 303-954-1381 or scastellanos@denverpost.com
