While contract negotiations continue between King Soopers and union members, the company has announced leadership changes at the top.
And the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 said Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit claiming that King Soopers has violated an agreement that ended a strike in February. The union said the supermarket chain hasn’t adhered to a 100-day truce that restarted negotiations.
Joe Kelley, president of King Soopers and City Market since 2019, will take over as senior vice president of retail divisions for Kroger on May 1. Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chain, owns King Soopers and City Market in Colorado.
Chris Albi, currently the group vice president of operations for King Soopers and City Market, will succeed Kelley as president of the grocery chain. Albi, a Colorado native, started at King Soopers in 1981 as a courtesy clerk and has held various leadership positions with Kroger.
The personnel changes won’t affect bargaining “as our negotiations are focused on our associates and the community we serve, not an individual,” King Soopers said in an email. The company said Albi has been heavily involved with bargaining since talks began in October with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7.
The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in February that ended a 12-day strike against 79 stores in metro Denver and Pueblo. An agreement reached Feb. 17 called for “a 100-day period of labor peace” while negotiations resumed.
But UFCW Local 7 said King Soopers has violated the agreement by not considering proposals by the union and putting forward ultimatums that would expire in April, months before the 100 days run out.
“We are now about halfway through our 100-day stand-down agreement and the employer has done very little to move things along. Indeed, they have and continue to take actions that drive us away from, instead of toward, a new contract,” Kim Cordova, UFCW Local 7 president said in a statement.
A message was left with King Soopers for comment.
The two sides, which met Wednesday and Thursday, said some proposals have been tentatively approved.
“But there’s still a long way to go, especially when it comes to wages,” Albi said in a video on the King Soopers website.
Albi and Kelley accused the union of dragging out bargaining in hopes of getting a better deal.
“The bottom line is all the money is already on the table. Every dollar available is included in the offer,” Kelley said on the video.
UFCW Local 7 said some progress has been made in a few key areas, such as scheduling and full-time employment. But an update on the union’s website criticized proposed wage increases, cuts to health benefits and proposals “to give away your work” to outside vendors.
The union is also negotiating a new contract with Albertsons and Safeway. Albertsons owns Safeway.
The contract talks follow the collapse of a proposed $24.6 billion merger between the Kroger and Albertsons chains. Albertsons called off the deal after judges in two separate cases rejected the merger and the companies are suing each other.
Updated April 17 at 4:52 p.m. with UFCW Local 7 filing a lawsuit claiming that King Soopers has violated an agreement that ended a strike.
