Workers at King Soopers in Boulder and Louisville stores are set to strike for two weeks starting Feb. 6.
The strike covers 10,000 workers at 77 unionized stores in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, according to a press release from UFCW Local 7, which represents workers in Colorado and Wyoming.
This is the first time Front Range King Soopers workers have gone on strike since 2022.
“We are holding this strike for a two-week period to allow everyone to understand our concerns, and give the employer time to right their wrong,” UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said in the release.
Union representatives said they are striking over unfair labor practices including “interrogating union members,” sending employees home from work for wearing union gear, and “refusing to provide information necessary for the union to be able to make or consider proposals in contract negotiations,” according to the press release.
Contract negotiations have been ongoing since October, and the contract expired in January, according to the release.
Connor Hall, a union bargaining member and King Soopers worker from the deli department at Store 33 in Boulder, said in the release that the company is trying to “force us to accept a new contract that takes us backward.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Hall said. “We have real problems with low staffing, and low wages that make the jobs so bad that many of us can’t even afford to shop where we work.”
The company said in a Feb. 3 statement that the union has not provided “a single counter wage proposal, and has once again chosen disruption and uncertainty by scheduling a work stoppage.”
“The Company respects its associates’ rights to participate in a work stoppage,” the statement said. “Any associate who chooses to continue to work is welcome to do so. However, the Company believes associates would be better served if the Union worked with the Company to reach an agreement that would not risk leaving associates without a paycheck, as the Company remains open to continuing to meet with the Union to reach a resolution.”
King Soopers officials said in a Jan. 31 release that its stores will remain open during the strike and that it will hire temporary workers to staff stores “if necessary.”