The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 has rejected the latest offer from the parent company of Safeway and Albertsons and provided 72 hours\u2019 notice that its workers intend to cancel a contract extension and strike.<\/p>\n
Barring a last-minute reversal, picket lines could form as soon as Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took this decision very seriously and concluded that after so many months of bargaining, Safeway\/Albertsons was giving us no choice but to further escalate our contract campaign,\u201d said Ivan Lopez, a Safeway distribution center worker in Denver, in a news release issued Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Lopez said the union had been clear in nine months of negotiations that the company needed to address \u201cstaffing, poverty-level wages, and ensure that workers\u2019 health and pension benefits remain fully funded.\u201d No acceptable compromise was provided after a January contract extension or after workers voted to authorize a strike<\/a> last week, the union said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor months now, Safeway\/Albertsons have been holding hands with their supposed competitor King Soopers and City Market by proposing workers take concessions on health care and retirement, while continuing to refuse to take meaningful steps to address chronic understaffing in grocery stores. These companies are even proposing to take benefits from retirees on fixed incomes,\u201d said Kim Cordova, President of UFCW Local 7, in the news release.<\/p>\n The strike, if it happens, could involve around 7,000 workers, ranking it as one of the largest labor actions in Colorado\u2019s history and the second-largest this year, behind a strike by approximately 10,000 King Soopers and City Market workers in February<\/a>. That strike, which ran for nearly two weeks, was temporarily halted for 100 days to allow for more negotiating.<\/p>\n The two sides have failed to reach an agreement, raising the possibility that workers at two of the largest grocery chains in the state could both take to the picket lines, something that last happened in 1996.<\/p>\n Safeway and Albertsons workers voted by a wide margin, upwards of 99% in metro Denver, to strike after nine months of negotiations failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to replace one that expired in January.<\/p>\n Stores in metro Denver, including Boulder and Castle Rock, as well as ones in Conifer, Evergreen, Fountain, Grand Junction, Idaho Springs, Parker, Pueblo, Salida, Steamboat Springs and Vail are involved in the dispute.<\/p>\n The votes on whether to authorize a strike took place in late May and early June and represent the first time that Safeway workers in the state have voted to strike over unfair labor practices since 1996.<\/p>\n