King Soopers hired temp workers to keep stores open during strike, will close Sundays

As day one of a planned two-week walkout began, about a dozen King Soopers employees were up before dawn on Thursday, pacing in front of their store in Centennial. Some walked the perimeter on the sidewalks as cars passed by. All carried white signs with red lettering asking customers to not patronize their employer.

Their union representative with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 forbade them to speak to a reporter, even as one employee questioned why not? Why aren’t they allowed to tell the people why they are outside the store instead of inside? Union officials said they would talk during a news conference later in the day.

According to the union, more than 10,000 King Soopers employees in the Front Range are protesting unfair labor practices, which allege surveilling and disrupting discussions between workers and union reps. A “last best and final offer” from the company was rejected in mid-January and plans to strike began.

Not all union members are walking out on day one. 

The strike started with Denver-area stores, where members of Local 7 voted to authorize a strike based on unfair labor practices. Union members in Colorado Springs and Pueblo followed a few days later. The number of locations could expand in the coming days, union officials said.

Grocer preps for strike

There are 77 Denver-area stores involved in Thursday’s work stoppage. Because of that, King Soopers hired temp workers to keep the stores open, spokesperson Jessica Trowbridge said Wednesday. 

“We have an obligation to the community to make sure they have access to fresh and affordable food and pharmacy services, so we’ve gone ahead and hired temporary staff to come and help us serve the community at this time,” Trowbridge said.

All stores will remain open, though locations impacted by the strike will operate on limited hours. Impacted stores will close on Sundays. On Saturdays, grocery and pharmacy hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the week, stores will open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m, with pharmacies open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

All other stores in the state, including City Markets, will stick with their normal hours. 

Not all King Soopers in the Denver area are unionized. Nonunion Denver-area stores are in Castle Rock, Brighton and Erie. There are also two Thornton locations — at 13700 Colorado Blvd. and 13525 Quebec St. — that aren’t part of the strike. Other nonunion stores farther out include Bennett, Conifer, Firestone and Windsor. 

All other Front Range stores with union employees further north and south of Denver will remain open since those locations are not part of the current strike. Those include all stores in Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont, Loveland and Pueblo.

Here’s a searchable list of impacted stores:

Negotiations on the new contract, which expired Jan. 5, stopped indefinitely 16 days later and no further meetings were scheduled. In unfair labor practice claims filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the union said King Soopers was “illegally threatening members with discipline” for wearing union clothing or union buttons, surveilling workers in discussions with union staff and “gutting $8 million in retiree health benefits for wage increases for active workers.” 

King Soopers filed its own unfair labor practice charges against the union for causing disruptions, such as mentioning a strike Dec. 17, and rejecting company offers without providing their own proposal for the workers, said the company.

The company had hoped to avoid a strike, like the one three years ago. Earlier this week, King Soopers president Joe Kelley in a news release asked Local 7 to “reconsider their approach and prioritize the best interests of our associates, their members and the communities they serve.”

King Soopers has publicly shared its offer to workers and urged employees to look and vote on the proposed contract, instead of voting on unfair labor practices.

King Soopers offered raises to boost store clerks’ hourly wage by $4.50 over four years, with top clerks earning above $27 an hour by 2028. Adding in health care and pension benefits, that would be $29.48 an hour. Minus benefits, the actual wage proposed would top out around an hour in Denver. The current wage is $22.68, the company said.

Union leaders had called the offer “inadequate,” because the amount would only boost pay for some workers, not all. The union also said King Soopers hasn’t done enough to address “severe staffing shortages,” or to ensure workers in the stores feel safe.

UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova said the strike will “allow everyone to understand our concerns, and give the employer time to right their wrong.”

Local 7 also represents workers at four Western Slope City Markets, including two in Grand Junction, one in Fruita and one in Clifton. No strike vote has been announced yet. 

Kroger owns 118 King Soopers and 32 City Market stores in Colorado. Not all are unionized.

This is a developing story and will be updated.