Union workers at King Soopers and City Market stores will hold a vote on Thursday and Friday with two options before them in their ongoing contract negotiations with their employer.þþThe first option: Accept the latest contract proposal from the company, closing the book on what has become a contentious labor negotiation with the largest grocery chain in Colorado. The second: Vote to authorize a strike, a move that would not immediately result in workers walking off the job but clears the way for that outcome if the two sides cannot reach an agreement.þþKing Soopers, meanwhile, is hiring temporary workers to ensure “stores can continue to serve our communities,” while lobbying union workers to accept the deal on the table.þþThe United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 announced voting plans in a news release Tuesday while continuing to blast the company’s latest contract proposal. UFCW Local 7, which represents more than 12,000 of King Soopers and City Market’s 23,000 employees, claims the contract would freeze pay for around half of all employees over the next three years, increase health care costs and reduce full-time jobs and hours for part-time workers in favor of more “gig economy” positions.þþ“Authorizing a strike is a difficult decision for any worker, but we are committed to making King Soopers and City Market a better place to both work and shop,” UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova said in a news release. “We remain hopeful that the company will come to the table with an offer that provides King Soopers and City Market workers with the benefits they have earned and deserve.”þþKing Soopers issued a news release of its own Tuesday highlighting benefits the company says the new contract will provide workers. They include wage increases over the next three years, with “top-rate” associates having the potential to be bumped up $2,000 over that time frame, and zero increases to employees’ health care costs. The release emphasized the company’s continued commitment to its employee pension fund, an increasingly rare perk at American companies.þþKing Soopers/City Market operates 152 stores, 148 of them in Colorado. It is a Denver-based subsidiary of grocery industry giant Kroger.þþ“We have come to this offer with each of our associates in mind,” King Soopers/City Market president Dennis Gibson said in the release. “I am confident when our associates read through the details of this offer they will see we are making significant investments in them.”þþThe two sides have been negotiating a new contract since late 2018. The existing contract expired in January. Union members voted to end a temporary extension in late February, setting up this month’s escalation.þþThe current proposal, which King Soopers officials say is their last, best offer, was put forth Thursday. The union accused company negotiators of walking out of talks that night as an intimidation tactic. The company has pushed back saying it was available to talk more on Friday but the union clearly was not interested.þþVotes on the contract offer and strike authorization will be collected across six meetings later this week. Results are expected to be known by late Friday night.
Source: Denver Post
