Denver District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace on Friday rejected most of the restrictions that King Soopers had sought on striking workers picketing its stores but did set some conditions.
Striking workers can’t block delivery trucks or erect temporary structures, such as tents and canopies, that hinder or block access to store entrances, crosswalks and sidewalks. Her instructions came in response to a temporary restraining order the retailer had sought against the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local No. 7 on Tuesday.
“There exists a danger of real, immediate, and irreparable injury that may be prevented by entry of a temporary restraining order. There is no plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law outside of the requested injunction,” Wallace wrote, while also noting that allowing “peaceful labor protests and picketing are in the public interest.”
King Soopers had sought restrictions including having more than six people protesting at a time; standing in front of entrances or marching in the parking lots; marching in a scissoring or carousel movement; shouting at any person within 20 feet or banging items to distract customers; setting up heating devices, tables, tents or awnings; interfering with handicapped parking spaces, and playing amplified music or using bullhorns or air horns.
“Regrettably, we’ve seen more than 300 instances of picketers making choices that compromise safety over the last nine days. We appreciate the court’s decision to grant critical elements of our temporary restraining order, that supports our commitment to safety for everyone,” said Joe Kelley, president of King Soopers and City Market, in a statement.
Wallace, however, noted in her order that King Soopers failed to provide adequate evidence of many of the alleged violations that it was seeking to address and that picket lines averaged around 15 people — not massive enough to intimidate customers or block them from entering stores. Given the number of stores involved, around 80, and workers in the day and night protests since the strike started, the number of alleged violations in the first week was fairly limited, she said.
The UFCW Local 7, which represents the 10,000 workers on strike, called King Soopers’ legal moves an “attempt to both silence workers and even prevent them from trying to keep warm on the picket line.”
“King Soopers’ distractions are still just that, distractions. We are hopeful that the company will finally get the basic messages we have been telling them since October – get serious with bargaining, stop the unfair labor practices, and address the goals of the bargain that would solve the staffing crisis that impacts workers as well as shoppers,” said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, in a statement.
Matt Schecter, general counsel for the union, called the judge’s ruling a “massive win” for striking workers and a “huge loss” for King Soopers in a memo that instructed picketers and their captains on how to comply with the judge’s order.
“You cannot impede the ingress or egress of delivery vehicles. This means you cannot stand directly in front of or behind them, nor can you position vehicles or other objects in a way that blocks delivery vehicles,” he wrote in a memo.
Workers can continue to stand off to the side in a way that does not block them and attempt to wave, hold signs, and talk to drivers to get them to stop, he said.
He also instructed them to not erect temporary structures — tents, canopies, tables, chairs — and said they can’t place trash or personal possession in such a way “as to either impede traffic or pedestrian access to the stores.”
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