Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Denver VOICE and was shared via AP StoryShare.
The King Soopers Strike enters its second week today and little progress has been made between the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 and King Soopers.
For the King Soopers employees on the picket line, the new contract often means something more than just money.
Shirley Brown began working for King Soopers in March of 2020. The pandemic had just begun, and King Soopers was short-staffed.
Working for King Soopers was a way for Brown to help her community. It was also a way for her to help her family with additional income.
“I decided to join the union to have stability, to have somebody to back me up,” Brown said.
Both Brown and her husband make minimum wage, and in September of 2021, they became homeless when their rent increased. They scrambled to find a new apartment but were unable to because most rental companies required their combined income to be greater than three times the monthly rent.
“For a couple of weeks, I slept in my car,” Brown said. “My husband went to his dad’s. And my kids went to my friend’s house. I didn’t want my kids staying in the car.”
Brown moved her family into a hotel but the weekly cost of $450 was too much.
“I stayed with a coworker for a little over a month and then was able to get into affordable housing with Metro West Housing Solutions,” Brown said.
Brown’s union dues are $13 a week. She acknowledged for most people, that isn’t a lot of money, but when you’re homeless $13 a week is a burden.
“I never considered dropping union dues,” Brown said.
She feels like her King Soopers coworkers are her family. It was her coworkers who sheltered her from living on the streets until she found subsidized housing for her and her family.
“If you’re working full time you shouldn’t have to fear homelessness,” Brown said.
Brown said the new contract would mean more than just a higher income to her.
“If we get a new contract I would feel respected,” Brown said. “I would feel like my job means something. We bust our asses to work, and we feel like we’re not appreciated.”
Gigi Jones said she was striking for her King Soopers Family too.
“Everybody is really close, especially at our store,” Jones said. “We all know each other’s family we’ve been there for so long. When you see each other for 10-12 hours a day you tend to become one unit.”
Despite working 40-50 hours a week, Jones still struggles to pay her bills on her King Soopers income alone. Losing her overtime would leave a hole in Jones’s budget.
“I work at Michaels part-time, and I do DoorDash on my days off,” Jones said. “I was born and raised in Denver. I don’t want to leave Denver, but I have to hustle to be able to afford to live here.”
Before the strike, Jones was behind on her bills. She is currently at risk of having her power turned off and is behind on her car payment.
“I got a job with King Soopers to begin with because it was a union job. Because it had a pension. Because it had securities,” Jones said. “For it to go away would be devastating. It is important for all of us to have that kind of security. That is why we’re out here.”
The union announced via Twitter that King Soopers employees can receive up to $800 a week in strike pay to participate in picketing or $100 per week in honor pay, to not cross the picket line.
It is unclear how this may be impacted by a temporary restraining order issued Jan 19., which limits the union to 10 picketers at a King Soopers location at a time. Any more loss in income in the short term would further hurt Jones.
Jones has been with King Soopers for eight years, with one short stint at Safeway sandwiched in the middle. In that time, she has received only one pay raise, after the last contract negotiation. Her hourly wage has increased with promotions.
Like other King Soopers employees, Jones said she does not receive annual cost of living adjustments to her income.
“If we were able to get a fair wage increase then I probably wouldn’t have to work three jobs,” Jones said.
Not everyone striking is seeking only pay raises.
Lawrence Kelly said the strike is important to him because he wants to see more emphasis on protecting the health and safety of King Soopers employees while COVID continues to be a threat.
Kelly got Covid in October of 2021. His 72-year-old mother was diagnosed at the same time.
“It was a Sunday after work and I didn’t feel good,” Kelly said. “I probably felt worse than I have ever felt.”
The next morning Kelly drove him and his mom to get tested.
Kelly may have exposed his mother while driving her to doctor’s appointments and running errands.
Both Kelly and his mom were vaccinated at the time, and Kelly rarely left his home other than to work, run errands, or help his mother. Within 24 hours of their diagnoses, both took a turn for the worse. Kelly dropped his mother off at the Saint Joseph Hospital Emergency Room, while he went to the Denver Health Urgent Care.
Kelly received monoclonal antibodies and recovered. His mother was admitted to the hospital and stayed for 15 days.
“My mom’s condition didn’t start to worsen until the first of November,” Kelly said. “It was a roller coaster. Some days were good some days were bad.”
On November 4, medical staff contacted Kelly and his siblings saying they had done everything they could for his mother, and she may die. The family rushed to be Kelly’s mother's side when she died on Nov. 5.
Kelly has experienced how dangerous a COVID-19 infection can be and he wants stronger protections for him and his staff. He knows of 17 COVID diagnoses among the staff at his King Soopers Store at 14th and Park Ave. since Jan 2022, alone.
“We are on the front lines and our safety is very important,” Kelly said. “The safety of the essential workers needs to be taken seriously.”
Brandy Ruiz said one of the reasons she is striking is because she is frustrated that many King Soopers employees qualify for government assistance despite working full time.
“I don’t find it fair that the government assistance has to be an option. A company should pay you enough to meet your needs if you work 40 hours a week,” Ruiz said.
Before working for King Soopers, Ruiz needed government programs like food stamps to support her and her son. In her six years with King Soopers, she has moved from being a customer service rep to working as a bookkeeper. She takes pride in the fact that she is providing for herself and her son.
Ruiz finds her work fulfilling and enjoys working with the store manager to track the store’s success.
“You don’t have to be a mathematical genius [to be a bookkeeper], but when something is off, you have to catch it,” Ruiz said. “It comes natural for me. It is like when you see a misspelled word. You can see it and find the problem.”
Some King Soopers staff members participate in government aid programs despite working full-time for King Soopers Ruiz said.
“They come and talk to me about their troubles,” Ruiz said. “That is why I am out here. My coworkers deserve as much as I get.”
Ruiz did note that if the cost of living continues to go up and she doesn’t get consistent pay raises, she too would become eligible for some government aid programs. She knows this because she scrapes by and pays attention to see if she may qualify for assistance.
“If you make even a little less than I do you would qualify for government assistance and courtesy clerks and others do make a little less than me so, of course, they may qualify,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz wants people to know no King Soopers want to be on government assistance. She said King Soopers employees work hard and want to make enough money so they don’t have to get help from the government.
“Everybody working full time should make enough money that they aren’t reliant on the government too,” Ruiz said.
King Soopers officials said in a statement it offered $148 million in new wage increases and bonuses to the union prior to the strike.
But the union said, via Twitter, that the pay increases come at the cost of higher health care premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
The union also claims the new contract prioritizes non-union staff members in scheduling, limits overtime pay, fails to protect employees’ health and safety, and could weaken the union by closing union stores in favor of non-union stores.
“We care deeply about our associates which is why we’ve come to the table with a robust offer that is the best offer in King Soopers/City Market’s history, that puts more money in our associates’ pockets while maintaining our commitment to invest in the whole person with industry-leading healthcare,” Joe Kelly, President of King Soopers said in a statement.
