King Soopers and Safeway each submitted “last, best and final” contract offers Monday to their unionized grocery workers in Colorado and Wyoming, who will begin voting on the proposed five-year deal Wednesday.

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 had no immediate response to the offer, but its bargaining committee discussing it Monday night and is expected to have a recommendation on ratification or rejection sometime Tuesday, said Laura Chapin, a Local 7 spokeswoman. The union represents more than 17,000 workers at Albertsons, King Soopers and Safeway, including more than 1,700 in the Colorado Springs area.

“We believe we have provided our employees with a significantly improved offer. It is our best effort to reach a peaceful settlement with Local 7,” said Kris Staaf, a Safeway spokeswoman in Denver.

Diane Mulligan, a King Soopers spokeswoman in Denver, called the offer “very strong. We hope (the union) will give it strong consideration.”

Local 7 members in the Springs area will vote on the offer at 8 a.m., 2 and 7 p.m. Wednesday at the DoubleTree Hotel Colorado Springs-World Arena, 1775 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. Members in Denver, Montrose, Pueblo and Steamboat Springs also will vote Wednesday, while those in Alamosa-Monte Vista, Brighton, Cañon City, Craig, Frisco, Gunnison, Lamar, Salida and Walsenburg will vote Thursday and members in La Junta will vote on Friday.

Union members previously have rejected several offers from all three chains, including “final” offers from King Soopers and Safeway that included a vote to authorize a strike against Safeway. Local 7 sought authorization Oct. 20 from the international union to call a strike against Safeway, but the UFCW International President Joseph Hansen instead asked King Soopers and Safeway to submit last, best and final offers to avert a strike.

Any strike would be the first since the union staged a 42-day walkout against King Soopers in 1996, which triggered a lockout of union members by Safeway. Both chains have agreed to lock out workers if the union goes on strike against the other. The grocers have been advertising for temporary workers who would be hired if the union calls a strike.

WAYNE HEILMAN
THE GAZETTE