Denver Safeway Workers go on strike

Denver, CO – On Sunday morning, June 14, Safeway and Albertsons workers started their first unfair labor practices strike in Colorado since 1996. The strike comes after nine months of failed negotiations and 18 months without a pay raise.

Workers are demanding livable wages, protection for healthcare and pensions, and an end to ongoing understaffing. The most recent contract proposal was rejected since it met none of these demands.

A statement from the union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, said, “The ongoing unfair labor practices, including bad faith bargaining, as well as surveilling and threatening workers, have given us no choice but to strike.”

The company has also abandoned a signed agreement for back pay going back to the end of the last expired contract that ended in January. Rather than providing enough healthcare for workers, the company has instead proposed cutting health benefits and pulling $9 million out of the employee retirement fund to pay for healthcare.

While the strike currently only includes four stores in Estes Park, Fountain and Pueblo, it is planned to expand. At least 16 cities have already agreed to strike, with multiple stores voting 100% in favor of a strike. Stores in another five cities will be voting this week.

During their last strike, Safeway workers were striking in solidarity with King Soopers workers, and this time may be similar, as King Soopers workers are also gearing up for a strike. June 9 marked the end of the King Soopers 100-day strike stand-down agreement, which was the result of their most recent strike ending in February of 2025.

This last strike began after months of failed negotiations with Kroger, the company that owns King Soopers, and lasted almost two weeks. King Soopers’ workers are raising similar demands to those at Safeway: better wages and an end to ongoing understaffing and illegal treatment. The new expected strike continues this same fight.

Despite King Soopers and Safeway being competitors and a federal court ruling against a merger, the two companies are working together, offering the same contracts to most effectively give workers as little as possible.

Kim Cordova, the president of UFCW Local 7, says, “This is really a residue of the failed merger, and these companies are still acting as if they became one company. They are both large employers that contribute to the same health and welfare – their health insurance fund as well as pension funds and a retiree benefit fund – so they are working in tandem as one to squeeze workers and retirees, as well as customers, by driving down the industry with low staffing.”

But the workers of these two companies are fighting together too, both being represented by UFCW Local 7, and supporting a strike due to their shared mistreatment.

“Now is the time to stand in solidarity with the workers who keep our communities running. These strikes are not just about wages, but are about a fair future for all working people,” said Lee Wise, an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society, “We urge everyone in Denver and across Colorado to support the strike by refusing to cross picket lines and by showing up in person to stand with workers at Safeway and Albertsons, and potentially King Soopers and Kroger. Support workers to show Kroger, Albertsons, and all corporations that the power of the working class cannot and will not be ignored.”

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