Employees are set to go on strike at 6 a.m. Sunday morning at the Estes Park Safeway grocery store after the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 rejected the latest offer from Safeway and its parent company, Albertsons.
The union claims Safeway/Albertson failed to meet key demands for staffing, livable wages, and protection of workers’ health and pension benefits.
Other stores involved in the strike are the Safeway stores located in Fountain and Pueblo, and also a distribution center in Denver.
Earlier on Saturday, Mayor Gary Hall sent a letter addressed to the administration of Safeway/Albertstons in an appeal to “please take action immediately to avoid a labor strike that would affect the Safeway in our high-mountain small town. I understand that a strike is imminent after many months of negotiations, and I have to plead for rapid resolution.”
Citing that 40% of the Estes population is 65 years of age or older, Hall wrote that a strike at the local Safeway would “create a crisis situation aggravated by the huge influx of tourists at this time of the year.”
Hall stated that low wages make it difficult for many Safeway employees to live in Estes Park and advocated for better employment conditions and for a rapid resolution of the matter, “The Estes Safeway has struggled for so many years with staffing levels, from insufficient pay and benefits, and from other conditions of employment. Many workers can’t afford to live up here and so they have to commute from the Front Range — which further aggravates the pay situation… On behalf of my community and our visitors, I need to ask, with high urgency, for the administration of Albertsons/Safeway to take rapid measures to either prevent or end a strike up here. Please do what is needed to help Estes Park get to a situation of sufficient and properly compensated employees now and into the future and stabilize our in-town food supply for our residents and others.”
Not all employees are expected to participate in the strike. Workers can sign a waiver and continue to work if they choose to do so without losing their benefits.
According to a letter posted to the UFCWL 7 Facebook page on Saturday, June 14 but dated June 15, workers will commence an “unfair labor practice strike” on June 15 beginning at 6 a.m. Other Safeway stores in other cities may vote to strike in the coming week including Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, and Longmont.
Thank you, Mayor Hall, for recognizing that “The Estes Safeway has struggled for so many years with staffing levels, from insufficient pay and benefits, and from other conditions of employment.” It’s refreshing to hear an Estes Park elected official state the obvious and not try to give this a V.E.P.-like spin “But you get to work in ‘paradise’, doesn’t that make up for the poor wages and no housing?”.
I grew up in a union family, and I will not be crossing the picket lines. Sixty-five is in my rear view mirror, but it will NOT be a hardship to support the workers and shop elsewhere. I hope cool heads prevail on the picket lines – both from those picketing, and those who insist on crossing the lines.