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Safeway Strike continues Jackie Sedley
Safeway Strike
The union representing some seven thousand Safeway and Albertsons grocery employees says that their contract talks with the grocery giant are at a standstill.
Negotiations between the Union of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 and Safeway had just resumed late last week. But Local 7 president Kim Cordova told Denver7 that since then, the company had abruptly left the talks.
That led Safeway workers at the Thornton Parkway store to walk off the job early yesterday, bringing the total number of affected stores to about thirty-eight. That includes the Safeway at Iris and 28th Street in Boulder, and a store in Fort Collins.
Tomorrow, meanwhile, negotiations between the same union and the King Soopers chain are scheduled to resume. King Soopers and the union have had on-again, off-again contract talks since a brief work stoppage in February.
Safeway’s parent company is Albertsons, while King Soopers’ parent is Kroger. The union said they’re the two biggest grocery chains in the United States. Local 7’s president said that the current situation is not about just one contract, but about future contracts.
New State Laws In Effect
A spate of new state laws go into effect tomorrow, with the beginning of the new month. They include two new gun safety measures.
House Bill 1174 requires people applying for a concealed carry permit to complete eight hours of training, taught by a verified instructor. The training, which has to be done in person, must include instruction on the safe storage of firearms. It must also include information on federal and state laws related to the purchase and possession of guns, and state laws on the use of deadly force for self-defense. The applicant also has to pass a written exam, and a live-fire exam.
House Bill 1353 requires firearms dealers to have a state permit. It also mandates the Department of Revenue to develop a training course for dealers. The training can be either in-person or virtual, and takers must pass an exam with a score of seventy percent or better. A provision of the law also requires dealers to do fingerprint background checks on prospective employees, and prohibits them from hiring anyone who’s been convicted of an offense that bars them from owning or possessing a firearm.
Some of the new laws going into effect tomorrow were passed in the recently-concluded legislative session, while others were passed a year ago. Most bills become law as soon as the governor signs them.
That’s all according to Colorado Politics.
Boulder Parking Requirement
The City of Boulder’s parking mandates will end in just a couple of months.
Boulder City Council unanimously approved the change last week. This means the city’s minimum parking requirements for new developments will cease to exist.
The decades-old parking policy has led to a large amount of parking in Boulder, where – according to Boulder Reporting Lab – land is particularly expensive.
The change is meant to reduce the cost of building housing and opening businesses, and help the city shift away from a car-centric urban landscape.
Under current city code, most new residential developments must include at least one off-street parking space per unit, while commercial projects must provide parking based on square footage. A recent study found that these rules have led to nearly twice as many parking spaces as are needed in some areas of Boulder.
A separate but similar ordinance approved last week revises Boulder’s neighborhood parking permit program. Areas outside of low-density neighborhoods will see a reduction in the number of permits available per household to one permit per licensed driver. In the Goss Grove neighborhood specifically, which is located between downtown and CU Boulder, the city will launch a pilot program next year requiring drivers without parking permits to pay for on-street parking. Revenue will go toward free bus passes for residents.
