On Thursday morning, picketing grocery workers were handing out flyers with an illustration of a football next to these words: “King Soopers dropped the ball.”

Thousands of King Soopers workers in the Denver metro region walked out Thursday morning to strike against the Kroger-owned grocery chain in Colorado after negotiations for contracts led to more animosity between company executives and union leaders.

Now the union is calling on customers to shop or pick up prescriptions elsewhere — right before Super Bowl Sunday.

“As you get ready for Super Bowl weekend and do your shopping generally, please go to Safeway stores instead of King Soopers,” the flyers said.

The strike is set to last two weeks after workers from Boulder down to Pueblo overwhelmingly voted in favor of walking out, though United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 Kim Cordova said at a press conference on Thursday that the union is ready to extend it if necessary.

Pueblo workers at two stores will join the picket lines Friday, she said. Colorado Springs workers are not on strike yet, as some workers are still under contract.

Union leader: King Soopers ‘pay attention’ to profit

The strike began just before people typically go shop for Super Bowl watch parties. And another holiday could be affected if the union and grocer don’t come to an agreement — Valentine’s Day.

“The one thing they pay attention to is their profit and we know that Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day are very important to them,” she told reporters.

In 2024, visits to King Soopers statewide were up 19% above the monthly average for the Friday preceding Super Bowl Sunday, according to cell phone data provided by Placer.ai.

Super Bowl Sunday had visits up 25% from the monthly average.

Valentine’s Day was the busiest overall, according to Placer.ai, as traffic was up nearly 28%.

The union is calling its action an unfair labor practice strike, defined by the National Labor Relations Board as protests against illegal practices committed by employers on union members. It comes with stronger legal protections for striking workers, such as not allowing companies to fire workers for walking out.

UFCW Local 7 alleged King Soopers intimidated workers during contract bargaining and kept information from them that would have helped the union put forward proposals. The union filed the complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

King Soopers said the union’s unfair labor practices claims are “unfounded” and the board made no determinations.

The grocer also filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union in December for not putting forth a wage proposal and “forcing the company to bargain against themselves.”

In addition, Cordova said staffing shortages are a top concern.

She said customers are affected by long lines, empty shelves and purchases on receipts not matching sticker prices due to a lack of workers.

Some shoppers go elsewhere 

At a Littleton store, one shopper turned back to his car after picketers asked him to.

At a Lakewood store, a customer walked up with shopping bags before noticing where he was.

“I thought this was a Safeway. My bad,” he said before returning to his car.

Another shopper, Anna Green, said she’d used the King Soopers mobile app to order groceries and have them delivered to her car.

“I don’t want to engage because I just don’t understand it all,” she said.

One driver turned around from a King Soopers store in Capitol Hill and apologized to the picketers for forgetting about the strikes. Other drivers honked at strikers in support.

Some customers at the store even joined the picketers.

Inge, an 82-year-old customer, put on one of the striking sign banners over her shoulders, saying she’s gotten to know the workers at her local store in Capitol Hill and wanted to stand alongside them.

“They come by bus, by foot, by bicycle to really have a job and they fulfill it professionally,” Inge said. “They even help me carry the groceries out. So, it is time that we actually lift the people.”

While it’s not clear how much the strike could hurt King Soopers, an economic analysis done for Colorado’s trial against the merger between Kroger and Albertsons (which fell apart) showed that for every $100 King Soopers lost during the 2022 strike, $50 went to Safeway.

King Sooper CEO: Timing of strike is meant ‘to hurt us’

King Soopers President Joe Kelley said the union chose this week to strike with the Super Bowl and Valentines day in mind.

“She specifically called it this week over Super Bowl and over Valentine’s Day to try to hurt us, and all the more reason why we need to keep our stores open to be a solution for our customers, our guests and the communities that we serve,” he told The Denver Gazette in a phone interview.

With the strikes, King Soopers is temporarily reducing hours at affected stores to ensure the thousands of temporary workers hired to make up for striking workers are not overworked, Kelley said. King Soopers is also offering free delivery so shoppers can avoid picketers.

Some temporary workers arrived on Thursday morning in white vans for their shifts. The company brought in workers through staffing agencies and from other Kroger or non-unionized stores. The union has criticized the practice as “scabbing,” saying it diminishes their bargaining power.

Kelley explained that hiring temporary workers is costly for the grocer to keep stores open, as the company also has to cover travel and hotel lodging.

“That’s where the real expense comes in,” he said.

Kelley said he also believes the union is unfairly targeting King Soopers, saying leaders are sending customers to their competitors and giving more time for contract negotiations to Safeway.

“It doesn’t seem like the playing field is level here,” he said.

When asked about what he’s doing to avoid futures strikes each time contracts end, he pointed to Cordova to improve relations, saying strikes are an extreme measure that hurt customers and delay raises for workers.

“She needs to make a decision on what she’s going to do differently,” Kelley said.

When the union is ready to talk in good faith, Kelley said he’d also be ready to make a deal.

“Get to the table. Let’s talk about the real issues, and let’s get this thing ratified,” Kelley said. “It’s the right thing to do for our associates.”

Cordova said she’s willing to go back to negotiations if the company gives them the information they want on sales and staffing to make sure they get a fair deal. But she said she’s also willing to take the strike statewide if it doesn’t happen.

More contracts are expiring in north Colorado and in the Western Slope in February.

“We’ll see if the company comes back to the table and stops their illegal behavior,” she said.

A ‘skeleton crew’

“It’s day one, we’ll see how it goes,” said Stephanie, a bakery manager picketing outside a King Soopers store in University Hills early Thursday morning. “Maybe Kroger will change their mind.”

If not, Stephanie and her bakery team said they’re ready to strike for the next two weeks.

Or more, if it comes to it.

“It feels like a skeleton crew but they say we’re fully staffed,” Stephanie said.

Araceli, her assistant manager picketing next to her, said she feels like she’s working three jobs at once.

“I’m either baking or I’m icing the donuts or packaging or doing the manager’s job when she’s not here,” Araceli said.

Araceli began work at 2:30 a.m. to bake the daily products and walked out at 5 a.m. when the strike began. It was cold outside, she said.

Temperatures in Denver were about 45 degrees at strike time, according to the National Weather Service, and dipped to 30 degrees by 7 a.m.

“It’s the right thing to do for everybody, you know?” Araceli said.

With the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day coming up, Stephanie said she hopes it’ll push the grocer to offer the union a better contract deal and address the staffing shortages they face.

At a Littleton store, a manager told The Denver Gazette that the deli and meat counters at her store are closed as a result of the strike. So is the Starbucks unit.

“That’s my entire team,” she said of the workers at the picket.

Denver Gazette journalists Sage Kelley, Stephen Swofford, Tom Hellauer and Deborah Grigsby contributed to this report.