February 03, 2025 01:03 PM UTC

King Soopers Employees To Strike Beginning Thursday

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• by: Colorado Pols

As FOX 31 reports, if you’re a King Soopers or City Market grocery customer, it’s time to stock up before a two-week strike by the United Food and Commercial Workers bargaining for better pay and staffing levels in their stores kicks off Thursday morning:

A letter from UFCW Local 7, a Colorado grocery store union, announced that 77 stores are set to strike on Thursday at 5 a.m. for two weeks.

The union said this includes about 10,000 employees from all unionized King Soopers stores throughout Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties as well as King Soopers stores in the cities of Boulder and Louisville.

“Over the past week, union members from across Colorado resoundingly told King Soopers and City Market that they were fed up with the Company’s unfair labor practices and authorized an Unfair Labor Practice Strike,” the letter said.

As Denver7’s Veronica Acosta reports, better pay is a component of the related demand from UFCW workers to address persistently low staffing levels in stores–a problem that in addition to making grocery workers’ lives harder is no fun for shoppers either:

“I run around like a chicken with my head cut off on fire,” [King Soopers employee Chris Lacey] said. “I’m a service manager. I run the single largest department in the store. I’m in charge of the cash room. I’m in charge of payroll. I’m in charge of the front end. I’m in charge of your customer experience as a customer, I am in charge of whether or not you have a pleasant experience in our store.”

Kroger management is reportedly flying in scabs from non-union states to fill in for striking workers instead of their prior practice of hiring local scabs for insultingly high wages, but either way those aren’t the trusted grocery workers we want handling our fresh vegetables. Previous grocery strikes have shown that Colorado consumers do respect picket lines, and there are lots of alternative grocery stores to tide you over during the two weeks (or less) UFCW workers need your teamwork.

On the other side, hopefully a better experience for employees and shoppers alike.