Grocery workers at many King Soopers locations across the Front Range will begin striking on Thursday, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 announced Monday morning.

The strike will begin at all unionized King Soopers stores in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, as well as stores in Boulder and Louisville.

It’s still not clear when El Paso and Pueblo county stores will go on strike. In a letter to members posted on Facebook, the union said it may announce strike dates for Colorado Springs and Pueblo in the “coming days.” 

Workers from Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs to Pueblo overwhelmingly voted to strike against the grocer last week after contracts expired in January and no new agreements were reached. 

A strike would total about 10,000 workers at 77 stores, according to the union.

The union said the strike will last two weeks, which could disrupt Super Bowl party shopping and Valentine’s Day for King Soopers and its customers.

“This strike is about holding one of the largest corporations in America accountable when they break the law and cause harm to workers and our customers,” UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said in a statement. “We are holding this strike for a two-week period to allow everyone to understand our concerns, and give the employer time to right their wrong.”

The union has called on the strike alleging unfair labor practices and frustrations over the grocer’s wage proposals and staffing issues.

Union leaders accuse the grocer of surveilling and interrogating union members during bargaining, not providing sufficient information for the union to consider or make contract proposals, gutting retiree health benefits and threatening disciple to workers who wear union clothing or pins.

In a statement Monday afternoon, a King Soopers spokesperson said it is disappointed by union leaders for using strikes as a tactic in negotiations.

“This strike marks the second time in three years that Local 7 has used the vague umbrella of an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike to unnecessarily drag King Soopers associates to the picket line,” the statement said.

King Soopers President Joe Kelley denied the allegations last week, saying the National Labor Relations Board has not made any determinations and calling it just “rhetoric.” He claimed the union has stalled throughout negotiations and is taking extreme measures by calling for another strike.

“We have a business to run and, unfortunately, when we can’t run our business because the union is being irresponsible and not presenting their offer, it causes an awful lot of havoc for our customers, our communities, and certainly, most importantly, for our associates,” Kelley said Friday.

The grocer is preparing for a strike by hiring “thousands” of temporary workers, Kelley said, and bringing in workers from non-unionized or out-of-state stores owned by parent company Kroger.

This strike could potentially be larger than the last King Soopers strike, which only affected Denver metro area stores in 2022 for nine days.

Union workers will receive a picketing schedule before Thursday morning, according to UFCW Local 7. The strike will begin at 5 a.m. Some stores may not picket on Thursday but will be added on later over the course of the strike.

“We will grow the list of stores on strike over the length of the two (2) week strike,” Cordova said in her letter to union members.

The union is also planning on more strike votes across the state for Grand Junction City Market workers (where contracts expired on Jan. 25), and King Soopers workers in Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and Loveland (where contracts will expire on Feb. 15.)

The union also called out Kroger for hiring temporary workers from out-of-state, calling it a “shameful practice” to undermine workers’ leverage while striking.