Union rejects “Last, Best and Final Offer” from King Soopers; Strike to begin Wednesday
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (KRDO)-- The contract between United Food and Comercial Workers Local 7 and King Soopers has expired, now union members are set to strike Wednesday morning in the Denver Metro Area.
Local 7 President Kim Cordova said the union is not considering an offer from the grocery chain, which King Soopers dubbed its, "Last, Best and Final Offer." Cordova claims that the offer is worse than previous offers.
Without accepting an offer, workers at stores in the Denver Metro Area are set to picket outside of stores beginning at 5 a.m. Wednesday. However, that won't include workers in Colorado Springs stores.
While the contract covering clerks in Colorado Springs-based stores expired on Saturday, the contract for meat workers at King Soopers stores doesn't expire until Feb. 19.
Striking now would have forced meat workers to cross picket lines to go to work. Cordova did say the union will announce a strike date for Colorado Springs workers at a later date. It's unknown if that will occur before Feb. 19.
"They're trying to buy you with a $2,000 or $4000 bonus," Cordova said in a video posted from a Local 7 video sharing account. "They're proposing huge concessions on your sick leave. We will have a funding issue and you will lose benefits. We will either have to cut benefits or raise the premiums and deductibles. Any wage increase you see on the table will be wiped out and it will be unaffordable."
Cordova says the union is looking for better safety and wages for workers and hiring more full-time employees instead of part-time. The union also accuses the store of using third-party workers instead of King Soopers employees and says that's hurting employee pensions.
King Soopers may not be the only area grocery chain going on strike soon.
The contract between Local 7 and Safeway/Albertson's clerks is up too. Cordova says the union will go to battle with them once it's done with fighting with King Soopers.
"Safeway still has proposals on the table to eliminate your [sic] daily overtime, and there's many concessions," she said in the video to union members Tuesday. "But because we've been in the contract negotiations with King Soopers, that contract hasn't been settled."
Cordova alleges that Safeway has intentionally waited for King Soopers to settle their contract with Local 7. She claims Safeway is hoping that the King Soopers contract will be less beneficial for workers.
While King Soopers' offer includes a wage hike for workers, Cordova claims the contract comes with major concessions for health care and is designed to weaken the union.
"This helps Safeway, so they don't have to pay the highest wage, and this gets King Soopers out of the wages that they're proposing for you, just to get you to sign off on the contract. Anything they're telling you, they are absolutely lying to you," Cordova said in the message.
On Monday, King Soopers filed a lawsuit against UFCW with the National Labor Board. In the suit, King Soopers accuses the UFCW Local 7 of refusing to bargain in good faith, delaying meaningful discussions, and engaging in a pattern of conduct designed to frustrate and prevent the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement.
UFCW has previously filed a lawsuit against King Soopers citing unfair labor practices.
In King Soopers' lawsuit, the company claims the union refuses to use a federal mediator, which Cordova confirmed Monday. She claims a mediator would "bog down" the negotiating process.
