SAFEWAY AND ALBERTSONS WORKERS FROM ACROSS COLORADO VOTE TO STRIKE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 5, 2025

CONTACT: Pam Aguado

paguado@ufcw7.com | 303-425-0897 ext. 399

SAFEWAY AND ALBERTSONS WORKERS

FROM ACROSS COLORADO VOTE TO STRIKE

Workers Fed Up Over Company’s Unfair Labor Practices

Which Have Led to Stall At The Bargaining Table

DENVER, Co. - During the last week of May and the first week of June UFCW Local 7 grocery store workers across Colorado voted to authorize another round of strikes. Over the past nine months, these workers, as well as grocery store workers from Washington State and California have been at the bargaining table seeking to end the chronic understaffing crisis at large national grocers Kroger and Albertsons Companies. These workers were also a critical part of a two-year effort that successfully blocked the largest proposed grocery merger in US history last December. 

Workers know that the chronic understaffing has not only created suffering for workers unable to feed their families but also has a daily impact on the lives of customers. From long lines and empty shelves to causing deceptive product pricing the impact of understaffing is being felt in grocery stores across America.

Over 150,000 UFCW and Teamsters grocery store workers are currently negotiating for new collective bargaining agreements across the country. Tens of thousands of these workers, including workers in Colorado, Washington, and Southern California, are taking strike votes this week.

Here in Colorado, Safeway and Albertsons workers in Metro Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Conifer, Evergreen, Fountain, Grand Junction, Idaho Springs, Parker, Pueblo, Salida, Steamboat Springs, and Vail all voted to authorize an unfair labor practice strike, in many cases unanimously. In Metro Denver, 99% of workers voted to strike.

“We have been more than patient for months as the company slashed our hours and ignored workers’ proposals on staffing and other key issues. Incredibly, Safeway and Albertsons have now chosen to walk away from a signed agreement for retroactive pay and benefit increases and instead are only offering increases going forward. This is the essence of bargaining in bad faith. Time has run out. My co-workers and I have authorized a ULP strike to address our concerns and make our workplaces better for us and our customers,” said Kevan Kohlman, a Safeway worker from Grand Junction and member of the negotiating committee.

UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova added, “Our union grocery store members at Safeway and Albertsons have now voted to authorize a ULP strike. At the bargaining table, this employer is holding hands with King Soopers and City Market to propose major cuts to workers’ healthcare benefits, and to threaten the financial security of our pension beneficiaries on fixed incomes, while continuing to reject meaningful efforts to address chronic understaffing in stores. On top of the concessionary proposals at the negotiating table, Safeway and Albertsons have gone back on their agreements.”

After months of negotiations, Colorado workers’ union contracts had originally expired in January and grocery store workers from UFCW Local 7 working at Kroger-owned King Soopers stores went out on a nearly two-week unfair labor practice strike in February.

Kroger and Albertsons are the two largest traditional grocery store chains in America, employing roughly 700,000 Americans between them. Both companies have enjoyed record profits since the onset of the pandemic in 2020 and are sending billions of dollars to Wall Street investors instead of investing in the stores, on lower prices for consumers, and on improving the lives of their respective workforces. Workers have been making it clear all along in negotiations that they need a living wage, better staffing levels, affordable health care, and a reliable pension. Time and again, almost all the union’s proposed solutions have been rejected or ignored by the employers – with these employers instead trying to drive what used to be middle class jobs ever closer to minimum wage.

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Local 7, the largest private-sector Union in Colorado, is affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union which represents over 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada and is one of the largest private-sector Unions in North America. UFCW members work in a wide range of industries, including retail food, food processing, agriculture, retail sales, and health care.