Class action lawsuit filed against Kroger and Albertsons over anti-poaching agreements

A recently filed class action lawsuit alleges that Kroger and Albertsons banners in Colorado entered into non-solicitation agreements against King Soopers employees during a strike in 2022.

A longtime grocery worker has become the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed Nov. 26 against the King Soopers and City Market divisions on behalf of grocers across Colorado The Kroger Co.as well as the Safeway banner from Albertsons Cos. Submitted by a nonprofit organization based in Denver On the way to justicea public interest law firm, the lawsuit alleges that the two companies entered into unlawful no-poach agreements at the time of a strike against King Soopers in 2022 United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7. The lead plaintiff, UFCW Local 7 member Valarie Morgan, was a member of the union’s collective bargaining team in 2021-22.

An investigation into the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger led to a suit filed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, which is currently pending in Denver District Court. As part of the lawsuit aimed at blocking the proposed $24.6 billion mega-merger, Weiser has also challenged the alleged non-solicitation agreements.

At the time, the AG noted: “Concerned about losing employees and customers to Safeway during the strike, King Soopers entered into an agreement with Albertsons in which Safeway agreed not to hire King Soopers employees and not to hire King Pharmacy customers Soopers to recruit customers,” according to an email between company executives ahead of the strike. Such non-solicitation and non-solicitation agreements are illegal under the Colorado State Antitrust Act because they are agreements that prohibit competition.”

Although AG Weiser’s lawsuit seeks to impose penalties on the grocers for allegedly entering into these agreements, the class action lawsuit seeks to recover lost wages and other economic gains for workers that could have been secured without the alleged agreements.