All over Colorado, from Wednesday, January 12th to Thursday, February 3rd, King Soopers employees who are part of a union are on strike for unfair work practices. On your drive into school on Wednesday, you probably saw them standing at the corner of the gas station holding signs, and you might be curious as to why.
Specifically, the employees are protesting the fact that they aren’t getting paid enough while not getting healthcare benefits. They are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers, which called the company’s proposals for these problem “insulting and unacceptable”.
This strike affects more than 8,700 employees across the metro area, and the employees have gotten to this point in order to make King Soopers as a company listen to them.
Obviously, this strike will not fail to affect us. On the occasion that you do continue to shop at King Soopers during this strike, you will probably run into some problems because of the lack of workers-lots of items that are out of stock, not being able to find something you need, etc. (9News)
While going to King Soopers for the next three weeks will certainly be an inconvenience, for the next three weeks you shouldn’t be going to King Soopers at all anyways. You might hear people saying “don’t cross the picket line”, and you might have heard them say that in the past with the Kellogg strikes or Amazon strikes. All this means is support the workers as they protest, don’t support the company.
For many employees, striking and not working probably isn’t helping them much. Sure, working would help them financially, but they are choosing to strike and fight for better rights, letting the greater public be known about the unfair practices they face.
By you going to King Soopers and continuing to shop there while employees stand outside and demand better rights, you are supporting the company who is exploiting these employees and further allowing them to do so. The more we support the companies and the less we stand behind these workers, the less likely strikes are to happen in the future. If employees are genuinely unhappy with how they’re treated by their employers, and yet people are still shopping where they work, why would they want to protest?
I know that King Soopers is probably the most popular spot for lunch at LHS, but we are literally surrounded by affordable places to eat. Chipotle, Taco Bell, Subway, Arby’s, Wendy’s (although it requires a drive), not to mention 7/11 and other gas stations that provide similar products to King Soopers. There are ways for you to avoid crossing the picket line and standing behind the workers while still getting a good lunch in walking distance.
For the next three weeks, don’t make excuses about why you “need” to go to King Soopers or they have something that no one else has-Safeway and Walmart might have the same or more products than King Soopers does (depending on who on the Lion’s Roar Now staff you ask). At this point, it’s more important to stand behind the workers who are voluntarily fighting for their rights than getting popcorn chicken for lunch.
