King Soopers Strike: Pandemic Workers Getting the Raise they (Finally) Deserve
The 3 week intended King Sooper strike has concluded after 10 days as of January 21.
January 21, 2022
The 3 week intended King Sooper strike has concluded after 10 days as of January 21.
The strike caught not only the attention of local news such as The Denver Post, CBS Denver, and 9News but also national news sources such as CNN, The Washington Post and more. The strike even captured the attention of Senator Bernie Sanders who sent a letter demanding that W. Rodney McMullen, the chairman and CEO of Kroger, treat his employees better.
The strike started on January 12, 2022 when 8,000 workers from 78 stores in the Denver metro, Boulder, Broomfield and Parker areas protested what they said were unfair labor practices.
According to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 (UFCW LOCAL 7), grocery workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers and City Markets started to demand a pay hike of at least $6 per hour. The supermarket chains’ have initially offered a wage increase of up to $4.50 an hour, but union leaders rejected it.
As of this morning, January 21, 2022, King Soopers and UFCW Local 7 announced they had reached a tentative agreement for the next three years. This includes increased wages, better healthcare options and more tools for on-the-job safety, but specific terms of the new contract have not yet been made public. The three-year deal still needs to be ratified, and union members will begin voting on it Monday, January 24.
“Hungry at the Table,” an Economic Roundtable report, found more than three-quarters of workers at grocery stores owned by Kroger are food insecure, with a rate seven times greater than the national average.
“Kroger provides its employees a shallow and narrow discount of 10% on Kroger brand groceries, which excludes fresh produce. This discount falls far short of enabling employees and their families to eat healthy and balanced meals. Among Kroger workers who are single parents, 85% are food insecure. This means that after their workday of putting food in the hands of Kroger customers, they return to their homes and are unable to provide the nutritious food that their children need to be healthy.” the report’s authors noted.
The report also stated; “Seventy-Three percent of Kroger workers say they are not fairly compensated based on their experience and the work that they do. Even though most of them rely on Kroger as their sole source of income, two-thirds of Kroger workers say that working for Kroger is a short-term job rather than a career opportunity because of low pay and short staffing at stores.”
Kroger is the nation’s largest grocery store chain and has seen its revenue and stock price surge rapidly during the pandemic. Kroger’s total sales went up 8.4% to $132.5 billion in 2020 alone. Front line workers, who are often poorly paid, were not fairly rewarded during this time while directly putting themselves in danger to serve our communities.
In a trend of workers demanding better and fair working conditions since the pandemic started, employees at some of the nation’s best-known companies, including Amazon, John Deere, Kellogg’s and more have sought to organize or gone out on strike for better working conditions as well.
Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, said in a statement. “This fight will always be about the workers. I could not be prouder of our members who put it all on the line to have their voices heard. … Now, our members have the contracts they deserve and can be proud of.”
