Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Times six twenty the round ten thousand King Supers workers
prepared to vote on a potential strike after yet another
failed attempt to negotiate contracts with the grocer.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Negotiations have been ongoing since last October. All attempts to
reach a deal have since failed. King Soupers offering what
they called their last best and final terms last week.
Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline
to talk more about it. As president of the United
Food and Commercial Workers Local seven, It's Kim Cordova. Kim,
thank you so much for your time again this morning. Lots.
(00:27):
We want to get to today with the latest on
what we know so far. So boil it down for us.
What was offered by King Soupers last week and why
did the union choose to decline?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, there are, good morning, Thank you for having me
on the company. You know they gave us what they
refer to as their last best final offer, which you
know we know that they can always modify their offer.
The company's last best final offer was absolutely concessionary. What
(00:59):
hurt our health care benefits are retirees, you know, no
money and for pension, does not address any of the understaffing.
You know the staffing issues that are going on in
the stores, which we've been talking about since October last year.
So the offer is an adequate, they've engaged in multiple
(01:20):
unfair labor practices, and so we're going to be voting.
Our members are going to be voting to strike. We
have strike boats scheduled all next week across most of
the front range and we'll be voting some of the
areas across southern Colorado. And so we're not voting on
(01:40):
the offer because the offer simply the company hasn't bargained
in good faith, and so we'll be bargaining or we'll
be voting over their unfair labor practices. So the company's
wage offer that they you know, I'm sure you'll have
corporate executives on saying that they're given this great wage
offer and their offer wise is inadequate. But too it's
(02:02):
not wage increases across the board. Some workers will not
receive any wage increase or as little as twenty five cents.
But what they are proposing is certain I mean guaranteed
benefit cuts mid contracts because they are not putting guaranteed
money into the our healthcare plan and taking money from
(02:23):
our retirees plans to fund some of that. And so
while Kroger's doing so well and they've set this over
and over again, the consumer and the workers have been
paying for this failed merger. So they have plenty of money.
You know, they had twenty four billion dollars to buy Albertson's.
They just gave seven point five billion to their shareholders.
(02:44):
But yet they cannot fully fund their benefit plans. They
don't want to pay adequate wage increases. I mean a
lot of their employees, their associates can even afford to
live in the city in which they work, and they
can't even buy the you know, overpriced groceries that they
sell in their own stores. Plan alone give good customer
(03:06):
service to the consumer.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I apologize, came, I did me interruptor? I think the
last time we had you on. I know, with any
negotiation there always is money, and it does come down
to money. But I thought the last time we had
you on, you said the big issue wasn't the money piece,
was actually worker protections. So has that changed? Has that
position changed? And when you talk about worker protections, are
they about getting more money for the workers or explain
(03:29):
a little in greater detail.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, no, I was asked about the offer that was
on the table. So one of the big issues is staffing,
and so there's just simply not enough bodies and hours
in the stores to take care of the consumer. So
as a shopper, if you go in, you see empty shelves,
you see departments shut down early, long lines at the register.
(03:53):
Prices are not accurate, you know, at the register, because
there's not enough people to hang the tag. Staffing is
been the number one issue. None of their proposals address that.
In fact, that's part of the unfair labor practices. Their
economic offer, which they're going to go around the media
saying they've done this great offer, it's not true. They
(04:14):
haven't addressed the big issue staffing in safety, safety is
a big issue. They won't put guards at the store,
they won't staff enough. There's a lot of you know,
theft in those stores. There's a lot of violence in
crime in and around the neighborhood in the in the stores,
you know, there's a lot of violence. They won't address
(04:34):
any of those major issues. And so their poultry economic
little offer doesn't do anything to address all of the
bigger issues. So, you know, not only is it a
concessionary offer, but it doesn't address the core issue of
the understaffing that is going on in those stores.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And with a few minutes we have left, give us
the schedule of what we can expect when and if
King Supers workers could be hitting picket lines.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah. Absolutely, We're bargaining with our competitors this week. That's
why we're not voting this week. But our votes will
be starting all next week and so we could take
action as soon as all those votes are done, and
so we should be wrapped up with most of the
votes by end of next week.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Where do we stand is I just want to pivot
a little bit. Where do we stand with the Safeway
contract negotiations? How are those going.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well? Safeway? We you know, they haven't tried to artificially
escalate this where they're putting you know, economics on the
table because we're still moving and we're still talking about
the language issues, and so they were tied up in
this failed merger too, and I think both companies have
(05:51):
been purposely understaffing to pay for this merger, and so
we have we have in a different extension agreement. We're
bargaining with sixty seven units with Safeway also an Alberson
store in Wyoming and a little bit differently, so safely
right now, we actually have an extension. At the moment,
(06:12):
they're moving, they're talking, we're addressing issues. We just got
data to address the staffing issues. So we're not there yet. Kroger,
I will tell you last week we met with them
and for six hours, workers talked to them about all
of the understaffing, how they can't serve their customers, and
Kroger had pre printed proposals just ignoring everything that the
(06:34):
workers said.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And so.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I think Kroger thinks that they can you know, they're
just going to continue to bully workers, and workers are
fed up. They want to take care of their customers
and they want to be safe at work.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
With the latest on the King Supers and Safeway contract negotiations,
President of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local seven,
it's Kim Cordova. Kim, thank you so much for your
time this morning. Keep us posted on what we see
going forward with these negotiations.
Times six twenty the round ten thousand King Supers workers
prepared to vote on a potential strike after yet another
failed attempt to negotiate contracts with the grocer.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Negotiations have been ongoing since last October. All attempts to
reach a deal have since failed. King Soupers offering what
they called their last best and final terms last week.
Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline
to talk more about it. As president of the United
Food and Commercial Workers Local seven, It's Kim Cordova. Kim,
thank you so much for your time again this morning. Lots.
(00:27):
We want to get to today with the latest on
what we know so far. So boil it down for us.
What was offered by King Soupers last week and why
did the union choose to decline?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, there are, good morning, Thank you for having me
on the company. You know they gave us what they
refer to as their last best final offer, which you
know we know that they can always modify their offer.
The company's last best final offer was absolutely concessionary. What
(00:59):
hurt our health care benefits are retirees, you know, no
money and for pension, does not address any of the understaffing.
You know the staffing issues that are going on in
the stores, which we've been talking about since October last year.
So the offer is an adequate, they've engaged in multiple
(01:20):
unfair labor practices, and so we're going to be voting.
Our members are going to be voting to strike. We
have strike boats scheduled all next week across most of
the front range and we'll be voting some of the
areas across southern Colorado. And so we're not voting on
(01:40):
the offer because the offer simply the company hasn't bargained
in good faith, and so we'll be bargaining or we'll
be voting over their unfair labor practices. So the company's
wage offer that they you know, I'm sure you'll have
corporate executives on saying that they're given this great wage
offer and their offer wise is inadequate. But too it's
(02:02):
not wage increases across the board. Some workers will not
receive any wage increase or as little as twenty five cents.
But what they are proposing is certain I mean guaranteed
benefit cuts mid contracts because they are not putting guaranteed
money into the our healthcare plan and taking money from
(02:23):
our retirees plans to fund some of that. And so
while Kroger's doing so well and they've set this over
and over again, the consumer and the workers have been
paying for this failed merger. So they have plenty of money.
You know, they had twenty four billion dollars to buy Albertson's.
They just gave seven point five billion to their shareholders.
(02:44):
But yet they cannot fully fund their benefit plans. They
don't want to pay adequate wage increases. I mean a
lot of their employees, their associates can even afford to
live in the city in which they work, and they
can't even buy the you know, overpriced groceries that they
sell in their own stores. Plan alone give good customer
(03:06):
service to the consumer.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I apologize, came, I did me interruptor? I think the
last time we had you on. I know, with any
negotiation there always is money, and it does come down
to money. But I thought the last time we had
you on, you said the big issue wasn't the money piece,
was actually worker protections. So has that changed? Has that
position changed? And when you talk about worker protections, are
they about getting more money for the workers or explain
(03:29):
a little in greater detail.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, no, I was asked about the offer that was
on the table. So one of the big issues is staffing,
and so there's just simply not enough bodies and hours
in the stores to take care of the consumer. So
as a shopper, if you go in, you see empty shelves,
you see departments shut down early, long lines at the register.
(03:53):
Prices are not accurate, you know, at the register, because
there's not enough people to hang the tag. Staffing is
been the number one issue. None of their proposals address that.
In fact, that's part of the unfair labor practices. Their
economic offer, which they're going to go around the media
saying they've done this great offer, it's not true. They
(04:14):
haven't addressed the big issue staffing in safety, safety is
a big issue. They won't put guards at the store,
they won't staff enough. There's a lot of you know,
theft in those stores. There's a lot of violence in
crime in and around the neighborhood in the in the stores,
you know, there's a lot of violence. They won't address
(04:34):
any of those major issues. And so their poultry economic
little offer doesn't do anything to address all of the
bigger issues. So, you know, not only is it a
concessionary offer, but it doesn't address the core issue of
the understaffing that is going on in those stores.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And with a few minutes we have left, give us
the schedule of what we can expect when and if
King Supers workers could be hitting picket lines.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah. Absolutely, We're bargaining with our competitors this week. That's
why we're not voting this week. But our votes will
be starting all next week and so we could take
action as soon as all those votes are done, and
so we should be wrapped up with most of the
votes by end of next week.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Where do we stand is I just want to pivot
a little bit. Where do we stand with the Safeway
contract negotiations? How are those going.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well? Safeway? We you know, they haven't tried to artificially
escalate this where they're putting you know, economics on the
table because we're still moving and we're still talking about
the language issues, and so they were tied up in
this failed merger too, and I think both companies have
(05:51):
been purposely understaffing to pay for this merger, and so
we have we have in a different extension agreement. We're
bargaining with sixty seven units with Safeway also an Alberson
store in Wyoming and a little bit differently, so safely
right now, we actually have an extension. At the moment,
(06:12):
they're moving, they're talking, we're addressing issues. We just got
data to address the staffing issues. So we're not there yet. Kroger,
I will tell you last week we met with them
and for six hours, workers talked to them about all
of the understaffing, how they can't serve their customers, and
Kroger had pre printed proposals just ignoring everything that the
(06:34):
workers said.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And so.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I think Kroger thinks that they can you know, they're
just going to continue to bully workers, and workers are
fed up. They want to take care of their customers
and they want to be safe at work.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
With the latest on the King Supers and Safeway contract negotiations,
President of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local seven,
it's Kim Cordova. Kim, thank you so much for your
time this morning. Keep us posted on what we see
going forward with these negotiations.
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