Essential workers need our support

Unions are fighting many legal battles to prevent the dismantling of federal departments. While we consider ways to support these national efforts, local action is also impactful. 

Many King Soopers workers in our community are on strike to raise awareness of their impossible situation. After supporting us through floods, fires, mass shootings, and global pandemics, staffing cuts and losses have created an untenable situation for our essential workers.

The result is that shelves are as bare as during the early days of COVID-19, and employees are stressed, overworked, and unsafe. This situation impacts our entire community by limiting the availability of essential goods and the safety of our shopping environments.

The workers' main request is that their company appropriately staff its stores and stop expecting workers to do the job of 2-3 people. This impossible workload fosters burnout and workforce shortages like the ones they are experiencing.

Being short-staffed also means exposing workers and customers to more risks (e.g., not having time to clean properly). And when someone is working alone, they are more vulnerable to accidents and violence.

The workers have specific safety asks in addition to appropriate staffing, such as informing workers of dangerous emergencies within three miles of the store, getting stores put on a priority list for police response, and providing heat and cold protection for those working outdoors (e.g., collecting carts in -18-degree weather).

So far, the company has offered worker safety protections only in exchange for concessions such as eliminating overtime or reducing guaranteed hours.

Making safety conditional on giving up other rights is not fair. Our workers deserve better.

On Friday, a community member yelled at a striking worker at the Table Mesa picket line: "If you don't like your job, find a different job!"

Unfortunately, finding a new job is often impossible.

Finding time to find new jobs can be challenging, especially when you risk losing your current job if you won't or can't work overtime.

If your primary job is stressful, you have a family or others to care for, or you are in school, you don't have the energy or time to do anything other than recover with your time off.

Most people don't have sufficient income to quit their jobs on principle and find something new.

Many people work in service industries because they love what they do. They don't want a new job. They want a job that is humanly possible.

Those of us who work often spend more time with our coworkers than our families. Leaving work friendships and relationships can be a stressor in itself.

The good news is that, as a community, it's easy to make a difference and support the unions that fight for our well-being locally and nationally.

For the duration of the strike (less than two weeks!), consider a different store to meet your household's needs. Visit the workers on the picket line—all of whom work at our local stores—and tell them you appreciate them. Ask them if they need anything. Bring them some hot coffee. If you have a spare 30 minutes, stand with them. If you are nervous about talking to people, you can hold a sign and not talk.

Local action is challenging when such massive shifts are happening. However, it also alleviates a lot of the anxiety we are all feeling as the ground moves underneath us. Caring for each other, building ties, and supporting each other's right to fair and safe working conditions doesn't just help strengthen our community; it creates the bonds that will help us weather this storm.

The only way through these crises is together. Let's be there for each other and support our essential workers as they fight for us all.

Find more information on the strike here.