COLORADO SPRINGS – Over 12,000 workers represented by UFCW Local 7, a labor union located in Pueblo, work at the 109 King Soopers and City Market stores across Colorado.
The workers’ current contracts ended in January and Local 7 has been engaged in bargaining for new contracts since mid-December with no progress.
More than 150 labor union members showed up Monday for the eighth day of negotiations. King Soopers workers waited for over three hours after the appointed time for the grocery store chain to make its first comprehensive series of proposals for the next contract.
The new proposal includes no pay raises over the next three years for about half of employees, decreased benefits and increased healthcare costs, no service credit for military service, and fewer full-time jobs and fewer hours for part-time workers.
“These workers should not be forced to toil in unsafe workplaces or be compelled to work when sick. Instead, King Soopers and City Market want to cut hours, keep wages stagnant and increase healthcare costs. This not only impacts our members, but the communities they live in. Our members deserve better. Coloradans deserve better. We are standing together to make that happen,” Kim Cordova, UFCW Local 7 president, said.
The labor union and King Soopers are scheduled to meet again at the bargaining table Thursday, February 28th, March 2nd, and March 3rd.
