Grocery strike unlikely this weekend
A grocery strike this weekend appears unlikely because unionized grocery workers are still waiting for approval from their union’s headquarters to launch a strike against Safeway.
United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 7 sought approval for a walkout Tuesday after contract talks stalled, but was still waiting by 4 p.m. Friday for a response, said Laura Chapin, a Local 7 spokeswoman. Any strike would be the first in Colorado since Local 7 members staged a 42-day walkout against King Soopers in 1996, triggering a lockout by Safeway of its workers.
King Soopers President Dave Savage warned Thursday in a letter to employees that the company “may be forced to lock out our associates, and the union knows this. It is not something we want to do, but something we will need to do to protect our business.” King Soopers and Safeway signed an agreement earlier this year to lock out their own workers if the union calls a strike against the other company.
A lockout “keeps the company being struck from being pressured to sign a contract that is bad for the industry as whole,” said Diane Mulligan, a King Soopers spokeswoman. “It also levels the playing field because the union represents workers at both companies, so the companies are working together. Lastly, a lockout puts pressure on everyone to get back to the table.”
Members of UFCW Local 7 voted overwhelmingly in late September and early October to reject final offers from both King Soopers and Safeway, authorize a strike against Safeway and ask both chains to return to the bargaining table. Negotiations on a new contract began in April; the union represents more than 17,000 Colorado workers, including in Colorado Springs 780 workers at 13 Safeway stores, about 1,000 at 10 King Soopers stores and an undisclosed number at an Albertsons store at 455 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd.
