More than 8,000 grocery workers went on strike in Colorado on Wednesday, after their contract expired and Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers and City Market stores, made an unacceptable “last, best and final” offer.
Contract negotiations have stalled on several fronts, including pay, health care, workplace safety, staffing levels, and reliance on part-time workers. The company is touting an offer that would create a $16 starting wage for workers on the contract—a number that turns out to be 13 cents an hour over the minimum wage in Denver, where several of the stores are located. The minimum wage in the state of Colorado is $12.56 an hour. And Kroger is offering $18 an hour to replacement workers—scabs—during the strike.
A report from the Economic Roundtable, underwritten by the UFCW, surveyed Kroger workers in Colorado, Southern California, and the Puget Sound region of Washington state, finding average annual earnings of $29,655—far short of a living wage in these high-cost-of-living areas—and declining wages (adjusted for inflation) for Kroger workers in recent decades. According to the report, “Nearly two-thirds of Kroger workers say they do not earn enough money to pay for basic expenses every month. Among the workers who are unable to afford necessities, 44 percent say they are unable to pay for rent and 39 percent say they are unable to pay for groceries. Fourteen percent of Kroger workers are homeless now or have been homeless during the past year.”
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Kroger made much of its $2-an-hour “hero bonus” for the essential workers in its stores, but quietly ended that bonus in May 2020. You may notice that the pandemic is still with us even as the hero bonus is long gone. During that time, the grocery chain’s profits have risen significantly, with people doing more cooking at home.
Workers have also had to contend with the abusive behavior of customers over the past nearly two years, including at least one physical assault caught on video.
”The companies were thriving, but our workers didn’t thrive,” UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said at a press conference this week. “Know what our workers got? COVID. Attacked. Beat up. Spit on. Slapped. Overworked. And the company? They did great. They did absolutely great, sitting behind their desk doing their job by Zoom.”
Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen’s 2020 compensation package was $22 million.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union has filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith and refusing to provide the union with data necessary for negotiations. Those ULP charges form the legal basis for the strike, a point that may be important down the road. The company has filed competing unfair labor practice charges accusing the union of bargaining in bad faith and refusing to negotiate as the strike date approached.
The union is urging local residents not to cross picket lines, while Kroger is urging them to order delivery.