The Denver Post this morning reports that the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has scheduled a strike vote to take place today and tomorrow in the Colorado communities of Denver and Boulder, with workers in other parts of the state to voter soon afterwards. The move comes as unionized supermarket employees faced the reality that Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger’s King Soopers had rejected their contract offer – an offer that, according to the union, gave the chains everything they asked for, including employee contributions to health insurance, lowered wage demands and reduced cost-of-living adjustments.
"Basically we caved," Trish Valente, a Colorado Springs Safeway worker, told the Post. "We gave them what they wanted, and they said no."
Spokesmen for the chains say that contrary to the union’s assertion, labor’s contract offer only addressed some of the issues on the table.
Local analysts say that there is a strong likelihood that the current situation will degenerate into either a strike or a lockout, possibly by the end of the week.
The existing contract expires at midnight tonight.
"Basically we caved," Trish Valente, a Colorado Springs Safeway worker, told the Post. "We gave them what they wanted, and they said no."
Spokesmen for the chains say that contrary to the union’s assertion, labor’s contract offer only addressed some of the issues on the table.
Local analysts say that there is a strong likelihood that the current situation will degenerate into either a strike or a lockout, possibly by the end of the week.
The existing contract expires at midnight tonight.
- KC's View:
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Stop the madness!
We don’t know which side is at fault here, but repeating the mistakes of the Southern California strike/lockout simply doesn’t make any sense. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost, and thousands of supermarket shoppers found someplace else to buy their food.
In fact, the only real winners in Southern California were the regional chains and independent supermarkets, some of which made so much money during the strike that they were able to retire their debt and put themselves in the most fiscally responsible position of their lives.
