Safeway, King Soopers workers reject contract, want to resume talks

Unionized grocery workers want to resume contract talks with King Soopers and Safeway rather than launch Colorado’s first grocery strike since 1996 after rejecting  “final” offers from the two chains during balloting that concluded Tuesday.

The vote by Safeway workers also reauthorizes a strike if the chain “does not offer a contract proposal that includes livable wages and a secure retirement,” Local 7 said in a news release issued after the voting ended. The union didn’t seek a strike authorization vote from King Soopers workers.

Kris Staaf, a Safeway spokeswoman, said Local 7 “advised us (earlier) that some of the larger bargaining units had rejected the final offer. We are in the process of evaluating this information and reviewing our options. We will notify the union of our thoughts on how to proceed in due course.”

Diane Mulligan, a King Soopers spokeswoman, said the Denver-based chain is “evaluating” the request from United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 7 but had no further comment.

Local 7 members from the Colorado Springs area rejected the offers Sept. 23, which included raises totaling $1.35 an hour for the highest-paid workers over the five-year deal. The offer also included nearly $40 million in additional contributions to an underfunded pension plan, reduced waiting periods to get medical benefits for family members and new preventative health care benefits. Union members had previously rejected two other offers from Safeway and one from King Soopers. Union members elsewhere in the state continued to vote through Tuesday.

Union officials said the offers were little changed from initial offers from the chains and would require cuts in future pension accruals by up to 62 percent, raise the minimum retirement age for Local 7 members from 50 to 55 and end a $200-a-month supplemental payment for retirees age 60 to 62.

The union’s current proposal includes wage increases for all workers, including raises totaling $1.40 over the next three years, as well as a “graduated” pension contribution plan that avoids benefit cuts.

Local 7 members at both chains have been working without a contract since the previous agreement expired Sept. 12; union members at Albertsons also are working without a contract but no vote has been scheduled for them.

Negotiations on a new contract began nearly six months ago. Any strike would be the first since the union staged a 42-day walkout against King Soopers in 1996, triggering a lockout of union members by Safeway. Both chains have agreed to lock out workers if the union goes on strike against the other and have been advertising for temporary replacement workers who would be hired only if the union launches a strike.