Workers and community members form a picket line outside a Denver King Soopers, after United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 began a strike over stalled labor negotiations on Jan. 12, 2021. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
A Colorado grocery store worker has filed a lawsuit against Kroger and Albertsons over alleging the companies illegally colluded by entering into a “no-poach” agreement amid a 2022 strike against King Soopers.
The class action lawsuit alleges the two grocery store giants struck a deal to prevent Albertsons, which operates Safeway stores in Colorado, from hiring King Soopers workers who went on strike in 2022. More than King Soopers 8,000 workers went on strike while demanding fair compensation amid contract negotiations.
Valarie Morgan, a United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union member who led King Soopers contract negotiations from 2021-2022, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. The progressive legal nonprofit Towards Justice is representing Morgan and grocery workers who were similarly affected.
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“I want to stand up for all the workers who were harmed by this corporate abuse,” Morgan said in a statement. “These companies rigged the system against us, undermining our right to fight for better pay and fair treatment through our unions. Hardworking Coloradans deserve better.”
The lawsuit seeks financial damages to account for workers’ lost wages as well as an order to prevent the two companies from engaging in agreements that restrict competition. It claims the no-poach agreement violates the Colorado State Antitrust Act.
Representatives for Kroger and Albertsons both did not immediately respond to a Newsline request for comment on the lawsuit.
“Coloradans remember the King Soopers strike well. Many of us refused to cross the picket line to support workers’ right to fair wages,” David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, said in a statement. “Little did we know that these companies had worked behind the scenes to rig the game. Their illegal scheme hurt workers, consumers, and the broader community. That’s what this case is about.”
A Colorado trial over a proposed $24.6 billion merger of Kroger and Albertsons wrapped up at the end of October, though a judge has yet to issue a decision in the case. The alleged no-poach agreement came to light during Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s investigation into the merger.
Emails show that during the 2022 King Soopers strike, Albertstons’ senior vice president of labor relations, in response to a communication from his counterpart at Kroger, committed not to hire any King Soopers employees or solicit King Soopers pharmacy customers.
During the trial, a lawyer for Kroger argued that the communication did not represent an agreement or “quid pro quo,” characterizing it instead as an attempt by the two companies to understand each other’s intent.
“That’s all my client did — asked Albertsons, ‘This is what your folks are doing. This is what our folks are doing. What is your intent?’” said Kroger attorney Matt Wolf. “That is not an unlawful question. Responding to that question is not unlawful. That is not an agreement.”
But Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, called it a “hidden and illegal deal” that harmed the union’s 18,000 members.
“Our members went on strike and won a major new contract, but now it has become clear we could have made even more gains if these corporations had not broken the law behind our backs,” Cordova said in a statement.
Separate antitrust proceedings are underway in Washington State and in U.S. District Court in a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission.
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