What’s Working: Public support for unions is high. But a grocery strike on Super Bowl weekend?
King Soopers workers enter their first weekend on strike in the Pueblo and Denver areas. Plus: Grocery workers wages, lots of labor news and more!
admin
Business/Technology Reporter
On some social networks and public message boards, users discussing the new King Soopers’ worker strike seem to be in agreement: Don’t cross the picket lines.
That appears to be happening, evident at a handful of Denver-area stores with sparsely filled parking lots since the strike began Thursday. But the strike has only just started. The weekend should be more telling as shoppers traditionally stock up on Super Bowl snacks or rush to the store for last-minute items.
Choosing this weekend was strategic.
“Absolutely,” said Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 that represents more than 10,000 Front Range supermarket workers currently on a planned two-week strike. “And we know that the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day are very important to them. The timing is really based on the fact that they refuse to bargain. We are well aware of what those holidays mean to this company. It’s all about money.”
King Soopers management would disagree. The company even issued a news release that starts with “King Soopers remains willing to bargain …”
Both sides have filed unfair labor practices claims against each other. Talks between the two ended Jan. 16. On Friday, King Soopers said it filed a federal lawsuit against UFCW Local 7 for “for unlawfully forcing the company to bargain with labor unions from Washington and California” instead of speaking directly with workers in Colorado.
At this point, though, it could be up to the public to sway negotiations. And public support for labor unions is at its highest level in 15 years, according to the latest poll by analytics company Gallup Inc.
Lee Adler, who teaches employment law at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said that the problem with polls is that they are data points. What people do could be different. And we’re in a different world today compared to three years ago when King Soopers workers walked out for nine days before reaching a tentative agreement.
“During the pandemic and its immediate aftermath, people’s emotional and real life, real time feelings lined up with their quote, unquote, political views of unions,” Adler said. “Is it similar today? Well, quantitatively, it is, meaning the support for unions. Qualitatively, it almost can’t be.”
Consumers may still be recovering from high inflation that has dogged us since 2022. They’re wondering what happened to all the eggs. But it’s also the sudden rush of executive orders from the new Trump administration that put politics back into how consumers react to labor news.
“It’s a little tough to decipher right now,” Adler said. “What are people feeling about these first couple weeks of the new administration in Washington, and workers being fired at the national level, people being told to resign? I think it’s a little hard to figure out how regular folks in America are reacting to that or if their reaction to that may be playing into their quote-unquote emotional makeup of sympathy or sensitivity or support for working people.”
On Thursday, a federal judge postponed Trump’s buyout offer for a few days, giving federal workers until at least Monday to quit and still get paid through September. The administration wants to shed 10% of the 2.3 million federal workers to save $100 billion. Some 60,000 workers, or 2.5%, had accepted the offer, Reuters reported. There are about 44,500 federal workers in Colorado, excluding postal service employees.
Dennis Dougherty feels strongly that strikes are the best thing for unions right now. As executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, he favors organized labor. But in Colorado, the labor movement has grown in the past few years, even as union membership has been stagnant.
“Strikes are even more critical now and over the next four years. And they’ve been proven to be successful,” said Dougherty, who showed up at UFCW Local 7’s news conference Thursday to support union workers. “In terms of the national context of what’s going on, I think you’re going to draw more and more people into the movement for workers’ rights.”
There’s been support for workers in general, he added. Voters in Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska, which are largely Republican states, passed paid sick leave initiatives in November. Alaska and Missouri also passed ballot measures to increase the minimum wage.
“A number of people are hungry for workers’ rights,” Dougherty said.
➔ King Soopers hired temp workers to keep stores open during strike. Pharmacies will close Sundays >> Read story
➔ See which King Soopers stores are impacted. >> LIST
Take the poll: Grocery shopping this weekend?
Share your take on the current King Soopers’ strike and help us better understand how consumers are approaching grocery shopping and labor unions. Take the poll at cosun.co/WWks2025
Grocery worker pay vs. minimum wage
Grocery workers wages once went a lot further than they do today. Back in 2001, the average grocery worker’s pay was more than double the state’s minimum wage. Now, it’s about 40% more, compared with 140% more back in 2001, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
We’ve graphed out the numbers to visually see the change between 2001 and 2023, which is the latest data available:
For additional perspective, Colorado’s average wage for all workers was $39.63, according to January employment data from the state Department of Labor and Employment.
King Soopers had proposed pay raises of $1.50 to $3 an hour for store clerks in the Denver area during the four-year contract, which has since expired. That would have new employees starting at $19.25 an hour this year, while more senior workers will be at $24.11 this year.
Meanwhile, the Living Wage calculator shows that the proposed wage increase for King Soopers workers in Denver does get them closer to a livable wage. The calculator, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, puts Denver’s living wage for one adult at $25.62 an hour. You can search other locations at this link.
Related Colorado Sun stories:
➔ How the Colorado Labor Peace Act came to be and why unions want so desperately to get rid of it. Democrats want to get rid of the requirement that unions take a vote before they can negotiate with an employer over imposing fees on all employees to pay for collective bargaining. >> Read story
➔ The University of Colorado’s medical residents and fellows want to form a union. The university says no. >> Read story
Sun economy stories you may have missed
➔ An Idaho rancher lost zero cattle to wolves in a decade. Can he help Colorado ranchers do the same? >> Read story
➔ In Colorado’s war against NIMBYism, Democrats want to give churches the right to build housing. This week, Colorado Democrats introduced legislation to become one of the first states in the country to allow religious institutions to build housing on their land — whether it’s zoned for residential construction or not. >> Read story
➔ Who gets federal research funding in Colorado? These two charts will show you. The University of Colorado system is the state’s major recipient of grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. >> Read story
➔ Colorado’s high egg prices are blamed on bird flu, but there’s more to the story. Egg-laying chicken farmers are still recovering from the virus outbreak of 2022 but now there’s the new cage-free law, mutations and more competition as bird flu devastates other states. >> Read story
➔ TABOR’s vanishing people: Why lawmakers are afraid 24,000 Coloradans may disappear in the next budget year >> Read story
➔ Can employers in Colorado require a doctor’s note any time an employee calls in sick? State law grants all employees — part time and full time — one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year. >> Read Fact Brief
❤️ Roses are red, violets are blue. What does Colorado mean to you? Send a valentine to our state by telling us what you love about Colorado. We’ll share some of our favorite reader responses. TELL US
Other working bits
➔ Homeless coaltion workers vote against unionizing. A second group of Colorado Coalition for the Homeless employees voted Feb. 5 on whether to unionize. But this time, workers in the Housing Assistance Department largely voted no, with 10 in favor and 19 against, according to the National Labor Relations Board filing. Last month, 49 workers in the nonprofit organization’s housing supportive services voted in favor of unionizing. The organization, which employs 850 people, said it’s still “committed to working collaboratively with the staff who wished to unionize.” >> Vote results
➔ Alamo Drafthouse cuts nearly 50 employees at local theaters. Acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment last summer, the fun-loving theater chain Alamo Drafthouse began cutting corporate jobs last month and now those layoffs have hit Denver’s three locations. Denverite has the local details. >> Read
➔ $2 million in grants for ideas to help people with disabilities. It’s a new program by the state’s new Colorado Disability Opportunity Office. A committee is looking for some good “innovative” ideas that help improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. Grants of up to $100,000 each will be awarded. Online information sessions are scheduled starting Feb. 11. >> Details
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Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara
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