United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 7 in Colorado just voted by 99% to authorize an unfair labor practices strike against Safeway and Albertsons.
What’s more, they’ve gone a step further and initiated a countdown clock to the strike’s commencement.
More specifically, UFCW 7 has filed its 72-hour notice for a potential strike, with the clock expiring promptly at one minute before midnight on Sunday.
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Here’s the full list:
– Metro Denver
– Boulder
– Broomfield
– Castle Rock
– Conifer
– Estes Park
– Evergreen
– Fountain
– Grand Junction
– Idaho Springs
– Parker
– Pueblo
– Salida
– Steamboat Springs
– Vail
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There is a final offer from the union on the table, which expires today. Assuming Albertsons / Safeway chooses not to accept it, then…
Once the clock runs out, UFCW 7 can initiate the strike any time it chooses.
They haven’t announced any official plans to do so yet – which makes sense, why give Safeway and Albertsons a timetable to prepare? The point of a strike is to disrupt things – but that could come at any time.
From there, it’s anyone’s guess.
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Strikes are miserable for everyone involved.
The workers don’t get paid, so they are obviously getting hit economically in a big way. (Which – the fact that 99% of workers voted for the strike tells you how bad of a deal they felt they were getting.)
The company, of course, faces either blanket store closures or bringing in temp workers to fill in…all while union members are picketing outside, encouraging people not to shop there.
And consumers who have a routine suddenly see it disrupted – either crossing the picket line while striking union members (understandably) publicly shame them, or shopping at different stores out of solidarity or just to be bothered less.
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UFCW Local 7 has been extremely active this year on behalf of its thousands of workers throughout Colorado.
– In February they struck against King Soopers (owned by Kroger) and won a temporary contract that expired on June 8th.
– They’ve just voted to authorize another strike against King Soopers in tandem with UFCW locals across the country who are putting pressure on Kroger around expiring contracts.
– And of course, there’s also this strike, too, against Safeway/Albertsons.
That’s a lot for one local to manage, but UFCW 7 seems ready to go.
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As I mentioned earlier, this is an unfair labor practices strike.
When most of us hear about strikes, we’re thinking mostly about wages, healthcare, benefits, that sort of thing.
Those are economic strikes, and of course contract negotiations are a backdrop to all of this.
But for an unfair labor practices strike, there’s usually some alleged wrongdoing by the company. In this case, the accusation is that Albertsons is “refusing to negotiate fairly and threatening workers.”
Not great!
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This new strike comes during a tough time for Albertsons as it faces a number of challenges. To name a few:
– Big incoming food disruptions due to changes at the FDA;
– Rising food prices thanks to inflation;
– Rising food prices and supply chain disruptions thanks to tariffs;
– Increased competition from new entrants like Amazon Fresh, as well as low-priced big box and warehouse competitors like Wal-Mart, Costco, and Target;
And of course, workers want to be paid better, too.
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Of course, this combination of factors is not lost on Local 7.
But by the same token, as they’ve noted…Albertsons announced at the end of 2024 that it would repurchase $2 billion of shares and hike its stock dividend by 25%.
It sure looks like they’ve got the money to deliver a better contract – and the union wants to see them spend it (and stop the alleged unfair labor practices too, of course).
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My two cents is, even if you aren’t a union supporter, and you live in Colorado – now may be a good time to prepare to steer clear of Safeway, Albertsons, and King Sooper.
With all of these potential strikes swirling – one of which could begin in just two days! – this might be a good time to shop somewhere with a little less volatility.
Giant’s a union store. Costco and Trader Joe’s have never really unionized, I think in part because they generally treat their workers pretty well. (That’s my perception – let me know in the comments if I’ve missed something there!)
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There are also two ways this strike could rapidly spread to impact lots of other states.
#1: Plenty of Local 7’s members work in distribution. Colorado’s in the middle of the country, and lots of product flows through it. If they strike, we could see substantial impacts to Safeway’s supply chains throughout the country.
#2: UFCW is pushing lots of coordination across strikes this year to improve bargaining power…so if Local 7 strikes, we may see other Locals around the country join them.
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We’ll be monitoring the situation closely to see what ultimately ends up happening. To make sure you get these important food stories, make sure you follow The Coconut Mama. Click here to access The Coconut Mama’s profile page and be sure to hit the Follow button here or at the top of this article!
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