Workers at Safeway, Albertsons and King Soopers stores across metro Denver will vote today and Thursday on new contracts with the two supermarket chains, and employees outside the metro area will cast ballots Friday.
The votes today and Thursday follow the announcement over the weekend that members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 reached a tentative agreement with Albertsons, Safeway’s parent company. The union ended its strike that started June 15 with a few stores and expanded to 48 of 80 Safeway stores in Colorado.
The union announced a tentative, three-year agreement July 3 with King Soopers and City Market, both owned by Kroger. Both grocery chains and UFCW began negotiations in the fall. The union staged a 12-day strike against King Soopers in February at 77 stores in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, as well as in Boulder and Louisville.
King Soopers and union negotiators leaders agreed to a temporary deal in late February that paused the labor dispute for 100 days to resume bargaining. The sticking points in both sets of negotiations included staffing levels, pension and health benefits and wages.
The union has said on social media that the proposed agreements would improve health care benefits, fully fund pensions, provide strong wage increases and hold a trial to study “real and meaningful staffing improvements” in the stores.
Union members will vote on the Safeway/Albertsons offer today and Thursday for stores in the Denver area, Boulder, Louisville, Brighton, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Conifer, Evergreen, Idaho Springs and Parker. The ratification vote on the King Soopers proposal will be today and Thursday for stores in metro Denver, Boulder, Broomfield and Parker.
The vote on the Safeway/Albertsons offer will be Friday for stores in Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont, Loveland, Pueblo and Leadville. Union members will vote Friday on the King Soopers contract for stores in Pueblo, Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and Longmont.
Kim Cordova, UFCW Local 7 president, said the vote results from metro Denver should be known in the next couple of days, but the total counts, which will include ballots from stores across the state, likely won’t be available until July 16 or 17.
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