DENVER — A nonstop day of bargaining by union leaders and King Soopers executives ended in a short contract extension on Friday afternoon.Bargaining is now set to continue until the new deadline of Jan. 16.
“We’ve been negotiating with King Soopers City Market representatives for about three months, and we've made zero to no progress with the company,” said Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7, which represents 21,000 grocery store workers in Colorado and Wyoming.In 2022, Kroger and Albertsons announced an agreement to merge. However, last month, U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the merger, following a three-week hearing in Portland, Oregon. Then Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger in Washington after concluding it would lessen competition in the state and violate Washington’s consumer-protection laws.Albertsons filed a lawsuit against Kroger, alleging it didn't do enough to secure regulatory approval for the $24.6 billion agreement.UFCW Local 7 said the failed Kroger-Albertsons merger came at employees’ and consumers’ expense.“ cashing out $7 billion for their investors and to pay Wall Street, but they're not investing back into the store. So we haven't seen lower grocery prices. We continue to see long lines at the store product that's not making its way to the shelf,” said Cordova.Long lines and empty shelves are one thing, but Cordova claims an increase in store crime is even more troubling“We have a lot of violence in these grocery stores. The company doesn't want to invest in additional security, proper pay, enough staffing,” said Cordova.It’s been three years since the last contract negotiation, which led to a worker strike. The last time a strike occurred at King Soopers, workers protested outside and gave shoppers flyers with information about different grocery store