Some Colorado Safeway/Albertsons Workers Now on Strike
After a 72-hour countdown clock ran out, UFCW Local 7 began an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike at several Safeway/Albertsons locations on Sunday, June 15. In contrast to the 10-day February strike that started at 77 Kroger-owned King Soopers stores in Colorado on the first day, these ULP strikes that started on Sunday will be more limited at first and expand as the strike continues. Currently, the ULP strikes are limited to Safeway/Albertsons locations in just four cities: stores in Estes Park, Fountain and Pueblo, and a distribution center in Denver.
According to Local 7, the initially limited scope of the strike will allow time for the public to learn about the issues that the workers are grappling with and give Safeway/Albertsons time to understand the seriousness of the workers’ resolve, while also reducing the hardship on shoppers and workers that a widespread strike would cause.
Local 7 said that negotiations that took place on Wednesday, June 11 didn’t achieve an agreement, so the union issued a required 72-hour notice that night to begin the countdown to the termination of the contract extension agreement. The contract’s original expiration was in January. Contact negotiations have been going on for more than seven months.
In late May and early June, workers at Safeway/Albertsons in various Colorado cities voted to authorize an ULP strike, motivated by alleged ongoing unfair labor practices, short-staffed stores and frozen wages.
“I wish that Safeway/Albertsons had taken negotiations more seriously, obeyed the law and respected the workers who make the stores run, but wishing doesn’t make it so,” said Kim Cordova, president of Local 7, which has offices in Colorado Springs, Denver and Grand Junction, Colo., as well as Cheyenne, Wyo. “We are fighting for better stores so that shoppers and workers alike can have a better experience. Instead of working with the union, Safeway/Albertsons has instead put its faith in its supposed competitor King Soopers and City Market in an attempt to drive down health care and pension benefits for active workers and retirees alike.”
In addition to the targeted ULP strikes that began on Sunday, Local 7 members at Safeway/Albertsons stores in additional cities that hadn’t voted in the last round of strike authorization votes will hold their own votes this week. These areas include Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and Longmont.
Last week, thousands of Kroger and Albertsons union grocery store workers in Southern California also voted to authorize strikes, following the news that in the first week of June, UFCW 3000 members in western Washington state had voted to authorize strikes in that region as well.
Kroger and Albertsons are the two largest traditional grocery store chains in the United States, employing about 700,000 Americans between them. As of Feb. 22, Albertsons Cos. operated 2,270 retail food and drug stores with 1,728 pharmacies, 405 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 19 manufacturing facilities. The Boise, Idaho-based company operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia under more than 20 well-known banners. Albertsons is No. 9 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2025 list of top food and consumables retailers in North America. Cincinnati-based Kroger employs nearly 420,000 associates who serve more than 11 million customers daily through a digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names. The grocer is No. 4 on The PG 100. PG also named both companies among its Retailers of the Century.
Local 7, the largest private-sector union in Colorado, is affiliated with Washington, D.C.-based United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents more than 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada and is one of the largest private-sector unions in North America. UFCW members work in a wide range of industries, among them retail food, food processing, agriculture, retail sales, and health care.
