Another major supermarket chain faces worker strike | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

If your employees are unhappy, your customers are as well.

In the small town where I live, there are several small grocery stores and not a single supermarket. While the stores’ offerings and prices are similar, the overall shopping experience is not.

One store has a lot of polite employees who are always smiling, always kind, and very helpful. The other, you guessed it, is quite the opposite. When cashiers scan the items at the register in the second store, instead of gently placing them down, they almost break them.

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While that is rude, I can’t blame everything on the workers, because the second store is hugely understaffed, and the management just won’t allow for more employees. Logically, they have a much smaller profit margin than the first store mentioned.

This story repeats itself all over the world, and sometimes the problem escalates. In the U.S. this year, there have been several huge boycotts at various retailers and grocery stores.

Recently, the retail giant Walmart experienced a nationwide customer boycott, organized by The People’s Union USA, over the retailer’s alleged contribution to economic corruption. Then customers boycotted Target and Dollar General over DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) rollbacks.

Now, another supermarket chain is about to join this alarming trend.

Safeway and Albertsons workers in Colorado plan to strike.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Safeway and Albertsons workers reject the latest offer, intend to strike

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 rejected the latest offer from Safety and Albertsons (ACI) and delivered 72-hour notice that its employees plan to terminate their current contract extension and go on strike.

“We took this decision very seriously and concluded that after so many months of bargaining, Safeway/Albertsons was giving us no choice but to further escalate our contract campaign,” stated Ivan Lopez, a Safeway distribution center worker in Denver.

Over the last few weeks, Safeway/Albertsons grocery store workers in Colorado pushed for an unfair labor practice strike to address the company’s perceived failure to negotiate fairly with employees and resolve understaffing at the state’s major grocers.

UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said that Safeway/Albertsons have been working with KingSoopers and City Market, asking their employees to take less in health care and retirement benefits, and even cutting benefits for retirees.

The Union also highlighted that the two largest traditional grocery chains in the U.S., Kroger and Albertsons, have seen record profits over the last few years and have given billions of dollars to Wall Street investors.

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What workers want is for these chains to invest more of those funds in the store, to lower prices for consumers and improve working conditions for employees.

One of the biggest strikes in Colorado’s history may start June 15

After nine months of negotiations, the bargaining fell through on June 11, and workers delivered a 72-hour notice requirement. That means the extension agreement can be terminated on Saturday at 7:42 p.m.

The countdown has begun, the Union said, adding that while the strike was not officially announced, it could begin as early as midnight on June 15.

In late May and early June, Safeway/Albertsons workers in Metro Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Conifer, Estes Park, Evergreen, Fountain, Grand Junction, Idaho Springs, Parker, Pueblo, Salida, Steamboat Springs, and Vail all voted to support an unfair labor practices strike by 99%.

Back in February, UFCW Local 7 members at Kroger-owned King Soopers struck for 10 days, hoping that Safeway/Albertsons would learn from it and reach a deal with its workers.

If the strike happens, around 7,000 workers might be involved, making it one of the biggest labor actions in The Centennial State’s history and the second-biggest this year, writes the Denver Post.

What’s more, there are about 150,000 UFCW and Teamster workers in Colorado, Washington, and California negotiating new contracts, suggesting that the strike in Colorado could lead to major labor action at retail giants.

In all three states, workers are complaining about understaffing.