Grocery strikes spreading as pressure generates settlements in some areas

DENVER and LOS ANGELES—More than 52,000 Western and Mountain State grocery workers, upset by management disrespect, low pay, and unfair labor practices, are striking or on the verge of it. Their United Food and Commercial Workers-bargained contracts expired months ago.

Their targets are big grocery chains, including Albertsons, Kroger, Safeway, Ralph’s, and Vons, who dominate in Colorado and Southern California, creating grocery monopolies—and corporate greed.

The Colorado strike involves 7,000 workers at Safeway and Albertsons. It started at 6:15 a.m. on June 15. The Southern California one, if it occurs, will see 45,000 members of UFCW strike at midnight on June 30. Their contract expired in March. One final bargaining session is scheduled for June 25-27. The workers authorized the strike, 90%-10%, on June 11.

Meanwhile, action by grocery workers has resulted in settlements in some areas:

In Washington State, UFCW Local 3000’s overwhelming strike authorization vote earlier this month forced the company to return to the bargaining table with a serious offer. The resulting tentative agreement, now heading to a ratification vote, includes improved staffing language, with first-ever store-level programs to address chronic understaffing. 

Workers also secured wage increases, maintained their fully-funded healthcare without benefit cuts, and won new investments in training programs and their pensions. The tentative deal could set a precedent for UFCW locals in other regions, where staffing and wage gaps remain key sticking points.

In Dallas, Teamsters Local 745’s fight against Albertsons wasn’t just about wages, but a challenge to the company’s push toward the automation of trucks at the expense of worker safety and jobs. After members voted nearly unanimously to strike in May, the union successfully defeated company proposals for fully autonomous trucks, a growing threat in the freight industry. 

The new contract explicitly requires a trained Teamster operator in any autonomous vehicle the company tests that will protect union jobs while ensuring safety standards.

“Our members sent a clear message to Albertsons that they were ready to walk if we didn’t get a fair deal,” said Michael Perez, Business Agent at Local 745. “This group was ready to strike to win a fair contract. They stood strong to win real protections and put the company on notice. Teamsters won’t allow our jobs to be handed over to dangerous machines.”

In Colorado, more than 90% of voting members of UFCW Local 7 voted earlier this year to authorize a strike. Local 7 said Safeway and Albertsons refused to discuss “poverty-level wages”—they haven’t had a raise in 18 months—short staffing, and the companies’ attempt to walk back health and welfare benefits.

“For months now, Safeway/Albertsons have been holding hands with their supposed competitor, King Soopers and City Market, by proposing workers take concessions on health care and retirement, while continuing to refuse to take meaningful steps to address chronic understaffing in grocery stores. These companies are even proposing to take benefits from retirees on fixed incomes,” Local 7 President Kim Cordova said in a statement.

After nine months of talks, the 7,000 UFCW member workers at those two chains had to walk, added Cordova, a leader in Colorado labor’s recent campaign to abolish the “second election” that effectively made it a right-to-work state. 

The first Local 7 workers to go out were at a Denver warehouse and at stores in Estes Park, Fountain, and Pueblo. Workers at stores in Castle Rock and Littleton followed the next day. Workers also plan to walk out in Boulder, Broomfield, Brighton, Evergreen, Idaho Springs, Conifer Meat warehouse, Grand Junction, Vail, Steamboat Meat warehouse, Salida, and Parker, the Denver Post reported.

The Colorado strikers have already drawn support from one political heavyweight: Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who’s running already for next year’s open gubernatorial seat. “I stand with @UFCW7 workers from across Colorado as they continue their fight for fair wages, better working conditions and the benefits they deserve,” he tweeted.

The issues are the same for the workers in Southern California, but their company’s labor law-breaking, formally called unfair labor practices, has come to the fore and become the key issue for the two locals. Their strike would be against the Kroger, Albertsons, Pavilions, and Ralph’s supermarket chains.

Locals 324 and 770 in California call their looming walkout an unfair labor practices strike. Legally, that means if National Labor Relations Board officials agree, the firms cannot permanently replace strikers. To add heft to their weight, the locals got the Southern California Teamsters drivers to refuse to cross pickets.

“The companies have broken labor laws by engaging in unlawful surveillance, interrogation of members at actions, threats, and retaliation for union activity. This is unacceptable,” the two locals declared in a joint statement on June 15. The old contract, which had been extended, expired on June 7.

“We overwhelmingly voted to authorize an unfair labor practice strike at Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions throughout Southern California,” the two locals said. “We are fed up with these corporations’ union-busting tactics designed to intimidate us and prevent us from getting the fair contract we’ve earned and deserve.”  

Dismissed the proposals

The big grocery firms have also offered skimpy raises and refused to budge on other issues, a review of negotiations bulletins from the two locals shows. The companies and the two locals have held 18 bargaining sessions, plus the coming final round. 

In both Colorado and California, the chains claim they are bargaining in good faith. Past history, especially in California, tells another story. There, after the chains pushed the UFCW locals to strike in 2003-04, the state investigated whether the grocery chains had colluded to break the union locals and found they had.

Bargaining committee member Cammy Fulton, a longtime Ralphs employee, told KWSB in San Diego, the companies “haven’t taken us seriously. This vote proves that we’re serious, and we’re ready to act if we must.” 

“This vote is a powerful message to Kroger and Albertsons: We are fed up with their union-busting tactics and unlawful behavior that disrespects workers, silences our voices, and stalls progress at the bargaining table,” the joint bargaining committee said.

The union bargainers admitted there have been “some good discussions on staffing” in the latest round of talks, but little else. And the companies recently offered another 25-cent-per-hour raise. 

“We’re still very far apart on what we need to support our families and other issues important to us, like clerks’ helpers working in a higher classification and increased premiums for department heads. We are fed up with being overworked, disrespected, and undervalued while CEOs rake in millions.”

The AFL-CIO’s Executive Paywatch study, based on federal data, shows that in 2023, the latest year available, Kroger CEO Rodney McCullen garnered $15.71 million, 11th among all retail CEOs in combined pay, stock options, and benefits. Albertsons’ and Ralph’s CEO compensation was not listed.

A survey the two locals commissioned showed customers of the grocery chains are unhappy, too. 

They’re complaining about both rising prices and empty shelves. 

“Consumer Reports caught Kroger overcharging customers by 18.4%, while the Economic Roundtable’s Bullies at the Table study shows 92% of workers witnessed this practice. A customer survey by UFCW Locals 770 and 324, along with the Los Angeles Area Alliance for a New Economy, reveals most shoppers report severe understaffing at Kroger and Albertsons stores, resulting in empty shelves, unbearable checkout lines, and shifted burden to shoppers,” they said.

In the first bargaining session, March 18, the unions reported, with photos, “customers waiting in lines for over half an hour, carts full of go-backs, and empty deli shelves. This not only pisses off our customers, but it puts additional pressure on us to do 10x the work in 1/10th of the time.  

“We presented our solution to their understaffing epidemic, which would provide a required minimum number of full-time jobs, and minimum total hours based on store sales. They saw the proof, but so far, the companies have zero response to the crisis they caused. Wouldn’t it be great if they cared about customers as much as we do?”

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