The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 has rejected the latest offer from the parent company of Safeway and Albertsons and provided 72 hours’ notice that its members intend to cancel a contract extension and strike.
The clock is ticking, and barring a last-minute reversal, the union will be free to form picket lines as soon as Sunday morning.
“We took this decision very seriously and concluded that after so many months of bargaining, Safeway/Albertsons was giving us no choice but to further escalate our contract campaign,” said Ivan Lopez, a Safeway distribution center worker in Denver, in a news release issued Wednesday night.
Stores in metro Denver, including Boulder and Castle Rock, as well as ones in Conifer, Evergreen, Fountain, Grand Junction, Idaho Springs, Parker, Pueblo, Salida, Steamboat Springs and Vail are involved in the labor dispute.
Lopez said the union had been clear in nine months of negotiations that the company needed to address “staffing, poverty-level wages, and ensure that workers’ health and pension benefits remain fully funded.” No acceptable compromise was provided after a January contract extension or after workers voted to authorize a strike last week, the union said.
“For months now, Safeway/Albertsons have been holding hands with their supposed competitor King Soopers and City Market by proposing workers take concessions on health care and retirement, while continuing to refuse to take meaningful steps to address chronic understaffing in grocery stores. These companies are even proposing to take benefits from retirees on fixed incomes,” said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, in the news release.
Shoppers reached Thursday afternoon outside a Safeway store in Thornton said they would go somewhere else if their local store participated in a labor action.
“There are tons of other grocery stores to go to,” said Tad Johnson, a Thornton resident.
Kayla Martinez, another shopper, said she would be too anxious to cross a picket line, while John Buter said he would stay clear, in part to honor his dad, who spent 40 years with the steelworkers union.
Helios Gomez, speaking through a translation app, said the store was the only one within walking distance, which made it convenient since he doesn’t have a car.
“It would be bad for me,” he said about a strike.
“We respect the rights of workers to engage in collective bargaining and remain committed to negotiating in good faith to reach an agreement that is fair to our employees, good for our customers, and allows our company to remain competitive,” according to a statement provided by Heather Halpape, public affairs manager with Safeway’s Denver Division, on Thursday morning.
The strike, if it happens, could involve around 7,000 workers, ranking it as one of the largest labor actions in Colorado’s history and the second-largest this year, behind a strike by approximately 10,000 King Soopers and City Market workers in February. That strike, which ran for 12 days, was temporarily halted for 100 days to allow for more negotiating.
The two sides have failed to reach an agreement, raising the possibility that workers at two of the largest grocery chains in the state could both take to the picket lines, something that last happened in 1996.
Safeway and Albertsons workers voted by a wide margin, upward of 99% in metro Denver, to strike after nine months of negotiations failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to replace one that expired in January.
The votes on whether to authorize a strike took place in late May and early June and represent the first time that Safeway workers in the state have voted to strike over unfair labor practices since 1996.
Back then, Safeway workers approved a strike in solidarity with striking King Soopers workers. Safeway locked its workers out before they could walk out. Both sides came back to the table after two female employees of the Safeway store at 2660 N. Federal Blvd. in Denver were killed when a woman fell asleep at the wheel and ran into the picket line.
With more than 150,000 UFCW and Teamster workers in Colorado, Washington and California negotiating new contracts, the strike in Colorado could end up being part of a much larger action at food retailers. A chief complaint in all three states is that stores are understaffed, which workers say has made life more difficult for them and for customers.
Employees are also upset that the company has failed to provide a pay raise in 18 months and that management walked away from a signed agreement to provide retroactive pay and benefit increases, saying that they would only provide increases going forward.
Workers are seeking better wages, better staffing levels, affordable health care and a reliable pension, Cordova said, adding that Albertsons, which is the parent of both chains, is also looking to divert $9 million from a retiree healthcare plan funded by workers to support benefits for current employees.
