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The
strike started at 7:00 a.m. ET. The workers on strike work at
King Soopers stores in the Denver metropolitan area, Boulder,
Parker and Broomfield cities of Colorado, UFCW Local 7 said.
This is the latest in a string of labor strikes in the United
States following similar events at Kellogg Co's U.S. cereal
plants and Deere & Co as rising cases of the Omicron variant of
COVID-19 and inflation pushes workers to demand higher wages and
better working conditions.
At King Soopers, workers have sought an increase in wages of at
least $6 per hour for all. However, the company's "last, best
and final offer" proposed raises of up to $4.50 per hour based
on job classification and tenure, which was the same as its
previous proposal.
The company's final offer, which was made on Tuesday, said it
will invest $170 million in wages and bonuses in total over the
next three years. It will offer a starting pay of $16 per hour
and will invest more in healthcare benefits.
This comes after the union rejected two previous wage offers,
the latest among them for $148 million, made last week.
Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, said Tuesday's offer was
worse than its previous offers in many ways. [L4N2TR3H3]
She said the updated wage offer "still doesn't cut it" and
retains many of its previously proposed concessions and adds new
concessionary items.
Kroger said in a statement that a study commissioned by the
company showed it pays hourly associates more than their peers
in the U.S. retail industry.
Nam Pham, the managing partner of the firm that conducted the
study, said any argument that Kroger does not pay fair wages and
top market rate "is not supported by actual evidence."
King Soopers operates more than 110 stores in Colorado and is
the No. 1 grocery chain by market share in the state. Kroger
does not disclose King Soopers sales.
The UFCW Local 7 represents thousands of workers, including many
who work for Kroger's rival Albertsons Cos Inc's namesake as
well as Safeway stores and other companies in food processing,
agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and medical cannabis.
"Union employees generally vote to strike as a last resort to
signal that they are unwilling to work under what they consider
to be unfair or unsafe working conditions," said Helen Rella, an
employment attorney at Wilk Auslander.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale and Praveen Paramasivam in
Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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