Colorado Grocery Workers Vote to Authorize “ULP” Strike in Pueblo
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 2, 2025
CONTACT: Monique Palacios
mpalacios@ufcw7.com | 303-425-0897 ext. 403
Pueblo, CO – Union grocery store workers for Kroger-owned King Soopers stores in Pueblo voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike and authorize UFCW local 7 leadership to call the Unfair Labor Practice strike. The exact times, dates and locations of the strikes will be determined later and will be announced to workers and the public in advance of any strike. The Pueblo Retail Bargaining Unit voted to strike 97% percent. 100% of workers in the Pueblo Meat Bargaining unit voted to strike. Workers in Pueblo join the UFCW Local 7-represented colleagues in Boulder, Broomfield, Metro Denver, Parker, and Colorado Springs who forcefully authorized a strike with their votes on January 29-31.
Reyna Carpenter, from Pueblo Store 12, said: “The Company’s response to the strike votes in Denver and Colorado Springs was to fly in scab workers from out of state and are employed by union busting staff agencies. That makes me feel terrible – they value us so little that they are paying money to fly in and train these workers when regular workers here in Pueblo often receive no shoulder-to-shoulder training at all. We are aware that Kroger is paying these strike breakers more than they are offering to pay their own workers in Pueblo. Workers in Pueblo are fed up. I am encouraged by my coworkers’ strength and unity in standing up to the Company and supporting each other. The Company’s Unfair Labor Practices cannot break our spirit. Pueblo will proudly join our union brothers and sisters in the rest of the Front Range in showing the Company how valuable its associates are.”
UFCW Local 7 represents 23,000 union grocery store workers across Colorado. 12,000 of those workers are employed at King Soopers and City Market stores. The timing of any strike and locations for where a strike would occur will be announced at a later date.
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Local 7, the largest Union in Colorado, is affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union which represents over 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada, and is one of the largest private-sector Unions in North America. UFCW members work in a wide range of industries, including retail food, food processing, agriculture, retail sales, and health care.