'We Have People Living Out Of Their Cars': 8,000 Kroger Workers Strike Over Wages

[appalachiablue]

- Survey: 78% of Kroger workers are food insecure. Multi-state survey of 36,000, including Fred Meyers and QFC working in Washington, finds 14% were homeless in the past year. (The Stand, Jan. 13, 2022).
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- The Guardian, Jan. 13, 2022. - Workers at nearly 80 grocery stores accuse corporation of making big profits during pandemic while not paying employees enough. -

More than 8,000 workers at nearly 80 Kroger-owned King Soopers grocery stores around Colorado started a three-week strike on Wednesday as new union contract negotiations stalled. The dispute is the latest in which workers have accused a corporation of making big profits during the pandemic while not paying high enough wages.

Kenny Sanchez, a King Soopers worker in Broomfield, Colorado, for 10 years has attended new contract negotiation meetings with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union and Kroger – and said there was a gulf between the two sides.

Sanchez said the lawyers from out of state acting on behalf of Kroger don’t get that the cost of living in Colorado has been soaring, and the workers’ wages aren’t keeping up with it. “We’re not making a living wage. We have people living out of their cars and struggling to pay bills,” said Sanchez. “This company does not get it. We can’t survive on what they’re paying out here and the competition is paying more.”

Union members voted nearly unanimously to authorize the strike over unfair labor practices against Kroger, as the company’s last, best and final offer included several concessions such as permitting the company to lower wages, use non-union gig workers, shortening leave of absence periods, relying on a part-time workforce, and offering only a $0.13 wage increase for some workers...

- More, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/13/kroger-workers-strike-over-wages
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- 'Survey: 78% of Kroger workers are food insecure. Multi-state survey of 36,000, including Fred Meyers and QFC working in Washington, finds 14% were homeless in the past year. The Stand, Jan. 13, 2022. -Ed.

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 13, 2022) — The Economic Roundtable this week released an independent research report, Hungry at the Table, analyzing the working and living conditions of over 36,000 Kroger workers in four states, including Washington. Workers in eight Kroger-owned brands provided data for the report: Fred Meyers, QFC, City Market, Food Company, Food 4 Less, Ralphs, King Soopers, and Smiths.

Although food surrounds Kroger workers, 78% report that they are food insecure- meaning that they run out of food before the end of the month, skip meals & are hungry sometimes- and 44% are unable to pay for rent & 14% are homeless now or in the past year. “Every day is a struggle,” said a Food Clerk at King Soopers in Colorado. “I’m a single father & live paycheck to paycheck to feed my kids. Times when I couldn’t pay my rent, we ended up on the street. Thankfully I had my car so my family had …a somewhat safe place to sleep.”

Some 17,000 King Soopers grocery workers represented by UFCW Local 7 are on a 3-week Unfair Labor Practice strike. UFCW Local 555 members who work at Portland, Ore.-area Fred Meyers stores recently conducted a 1-day strike before they won a contract offer members could accept. “King Soopers is enjoying record profits while leaving its workers to struggle with low wages,” said UFCW 7 President Kim Cordova. “Grocery workers ensure that our communities have access to food, but they cannot even afford to feed their own families. This is grossly unfair. King Soopers has chosen to enrich its bottom line, instead of protecting workers who have risked their lives on the front lines.”...https://www.thestand.org/2022/01/survey-78-of-kroger-workers-are-food-insecure/

[BeckyDem]

1. Wrong on every level.

K&R

boycott Krogers.

[appalachiablue]

2. No support for Kroger Cos. until this is fixed. Unreal:

> Union members voted nearly unanimously to authorize the strike over unfair labor practices against Kroger, as the company’s last, best and final offer included several concessions such as

permitting the company to lower wages, use non-union gig workers, shortening leave of absence periods, relying on a part-time workforce, and offering only a $0.13 wage increase for some workers...

[LoisB]

3. No one working a full-time job should be unable to pay rent, utilities, and buy food. Either

wages must go up or prices have to come down. Kroger is not hurting. This is just the 3rd quarter 2021.

- Digital Sales two-year stack grew 103%
- EPS of $0.64; Adjusted EPS of $0.78
- Operating Profit of $868 million; Adjusted FIFO Operating Profit of $974 million
- Alternative profit business delivered record third quarter operating profit

[pfitz59]

4. Mrs Mitch McConnel sits on the Kroger Board

She was a horror as Labor Secretary. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kroger-elects-elaine-chao-board-203000349.html