Striking King Soopers workers demand higher pay, citing COVID-19 risks
CBSN
Roughly 8,000 grocery workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers and City Markets are on strike in Colorado, marking yet another labor dispute in a wave of protests during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Employees at the stores, who walked off the job on Wednesday, are demanding a pay hike of at least $6 per hour, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7. The supermarket chains' have offered a wage increase of up to $4.50 an hour, but union leaders have rejected it. The strike is expected to last until February 2, union representatives said.
"The company's 'last, best, and final' offer, in many ways, is worse than its previous offers," Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, said in a statement this week. "We strike because it has become clear this is the only way to get what is fair, just and equitable for the grocery workers who have risked their lives every day just by showing up to work during the pandemic."
