The King Soopers strike, which included Boulder and Louisville stores, ended late Monday, Feb. 17 with an agreement to return to the bargaining table with “a 100-day period of labor peace, ensuring negotiations continue in good faith without further disruptions.” No new contract is in place yet.
The strike ended two days ahead of its planned Thursday, Feb. 20 end date. Workers from 77 stores across the Front Range were on strike over what they say were unfair labor practices (ULP) including interrogating and surveilling union members and “refusing to provide information necessary for the union to be able to make or consider proposals in contract negotiations.”
“We will go back to the bargaining table and continue our fight for a fair union contract for us, our customers and the communities we serve,” UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said in a press release. “This strike was about thousands of everyday grocery store workers, collectively standing together and facing one of the largest corporations in America and saying ENOUGH. Our strike was just the beginning of this effort and elevated staffing in grocery stores to a national level with more workers and allies joining together.”
King Soopers President Joe Kelley said in a release employees were “the heart of King Soopers.”
“Securing this agreement was about restoring certainty, not just for our business, but for the people who make it possible,” he said.
The agreement ensures that workers will not lose their health insurance for not meeting hourly requirements due to the strike, according to releases from both parties. The grocery store chain has also agreed that its original “Last and Best Final Offer” will not actually be its last, according to the union.
The return to work comes after nearly two weeks of a contentious strike that included legal action from the company including a federal suit and a request for a temporary restraining order on picketers that a Denver district court judge largely rejected.
Among the denied requests was that the judge limit the number of picketers to six outside a store at a time, CPR reported. Still, the judge ruled that picketers could not block delivery trucks or put up temporary structures.
The chain said stores would return to normal hours and operation Feb. 19.