The picket lines in front of King Soopers stores across the Denver area were down Tuesday and company and union negotiators were preparing to head back to the bargaining table after agreeing to end a 12-day strike.
Joe Kelley, president of Kroger-owned King Soopers and City Market, said contract negotiations could resume Feb. 27. An agreement announced late Monday by the supermarket chain and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 calls for 100 days without strike activities and any moves to implement what King Soopers previously called its “last, best, final” offer.
“So the bottom line is take down the picket signs last night at 11:50, let’s get everybody back to work at the latest by 5 a.m. on Thursday,” Kelley said. “Let’s sign an agreement that takes us the next 100 days, until the end of May.”
Kelley doesn’t believe it will take that long to approve a new contract. “I told Kim Cordova, and I think she agrees, that we can get this thing done if we can get the right people at the table.”
Cordova, president of the union, sounded a more cautious tone. “It’s far from over. We at least accomplished some of what we wanted to accomplish.”
The union held King Soopers accountable for its unfair labor practices and raised issues of the understaffing of the stores, Cordova said. Inadequate staffing is a problem throughout the grocery industry, but particularly with Kroger-owned stores, she added.
King Soopers has disputed claims of understaffing. Kelley said the company has more employees than it did three years ago, the last time the union went on strike against the Colorado-based company.
But Kelley said King Soopers is “more than happy” to consider ideas for addressing workforce concerns.
“We feel we have an excellent offer on the table. The problem is we didn’t get a response from the union,” Kelley said. “Next week, we would expect them to respond to that offer.”
The strike that started Feb. 6 when about 10,000 employees walked off the job in the Denver area was marked by both sides filing unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board. The union said the company’s proposal included an unlawful provision to divert money from the retirees’ health care fund, making the entire contract offer illegal.
King Soopers filed a complaint accusing the union of delaying negotiations and not bargaining in good faith. Negotiations ended Jan. 17 after the union’s contracts with the company expired and union bargainers decided against presenting King Soopers’ proposal to employees.
Union members in Pueblo, Colorado Springs and in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, as well as in Boulder and Louisville voted to authorize a strike. The strike, expected to last two weeks, affected 79 stores across the Denver area and in Pueblo.
Kelley said King Soopers and union representatives talked for several hours Sunday about what the company called a “peaceful relations agreement” to revive negotiations and end the strike. He said an agreement was reached after King Soopers offered to ensure that striking workers’ health care coverage would continue even if they had not worked enough days to draw benefits.
Cordova said the union insisted on assurances that no one’s health care would lapse before making a deal with the company. Even so, she said no members were in immediate danger of losing coverage.
“They couldn’t weaken our line, so then they tried to scare workers that they were going to lose their benefits,” Cordova said.
The union president believes a judge’s rejection of most of what King Soopers sought in a temporary restraining order prompted the company to resume negotiations. Last week, Denver District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace ruled against most of the restrictions King Soopers requested on striking workers picketing stores.
“I hope they’ve learned a lesson and I hope they’re actually going to sit down and recognize the workers as stakeholders in their company,” Cordova said.
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