Estes Park Safeway Worker Slams UFCW Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Retaliatory $7,912 Strike Fine
NLRB charge: Union bosses had no legal right to impose discipline since employee resigned union membership prior to working during June 2025 strike action
Estes Park, CO (April 20, 2026) – Estes Park Safeway employee Abraham Ireland has slammed United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 union officials with federal charges, maintaining that union officials hit him with a variety of illegal disciplinary actions for not participating in a June 2025 strike. Ireland, whose charges include details about UFCW union officials demanding nearly $8,000 in unlawful fines, filed his unfair labor practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing private sector labor law, a task that includes adjudicating labor disputes between union officials, employers, and individual employees. Federal law forbids union officials from imposing internal discipline, including fines and union trial proceedings, on workers who have exercised their right to opt out of union membership. The Foundation-won CWA v. Beck Supreme Court decision also prohibits union officials from forcing nonmembers to pay dues for the union’s “nonchargeable” expenses, which include political or ideological activities and anything else unrelated to bargaining.
Colorado lacks Right to Work protections for its workers, meaning union officials can require every employee in a workplace to pay money to the union just to keep their jobs. However, this coercive power is limited by the Beck ruling. In contrast, in states that have Right to Work laws, such as Colorado’s neighbors Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah, union membership and all union financial support are voluntary and the choice of each individual worker.
UFCW Union Imposes Obscene Fine, Ignores Longstanding Legal Precedents
According to Ireland’s charges, on June 15, 2025, he notified the union that he resigned his membership effective immediately. Ireland also notified the union that he was exercising his Beck right to pay a reduced amount of money to the union as a nonmember from that point forward.
However, read Ireland’s charges, “on January 9, 2026, the Union refused to honor [Ireland’s] right to resign from union membership by informing him that it was processing internal union charges against him, for…crossing the picket line.” Additionally, the charges state that in March “the Union notified [Ireland] that the Union had issued a fine in the amount of $7,912.45,” despite Ireland’s valid resignation.
Ireland maintains in his charges that union officials never provided him with financial disclosures indicating how the union calculates the reduced fee amount it charges nonmembers, another requirement of the Beck Supreme Court decision.
UFCW Caught Red-Handed by Multiple Grocery Workers Around Country
Foundation-backed grocery workers in Colorado and other states have racked up a number of recent legal victories against the UFCW union, particularly challenging UFCW officials meting out strike discipline on nonmembers. In Oregon, a Fred Meyer employee’s recent federal case against UFCW Local 555 union bosses forced the union to back off a demand for nearly $1,000 in strike fines. In Centennial, Colorado, two grocery employees were similarly able to escape illegal strike fine demands (issued in connection with a King Soopers strike) this March after Foundation involvement.
“UFCW union officials are assembling an ugly track record of violating the free choice rights of grocery workers, who have the unequivocal right to end their union memberships and return to work during a union boss-ordered strike,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “Luckily, Foundation attorneys have scored multiple legal victories for grocery workers, both in Colorado and beyond, who have been subjected to UFCW union officials’ illegal schemes.
“We encourage those who experienced coercion during the UFCW’s most recent wave of strikes to reach out to learn about and defend their rights with free Foundation legal aid,” added Mix.
Four Colorado Safeway Workers Slam UFCW Union Officials With More Federal Charges for Illegal Strike Fines
Charge: UFCW Local 7 unlawfully subjected nonmember employees to ‘internal disciplinary’ fines for not abiding by a union boss-ordered strike
Denver, CO (February 23, 2026) – Four employees at three separate Safeway grocery stores located near Denver have filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 union.
The workers’ charges were filed with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys in response to union bosses illegally threatening the workers and their colleagues with fines for choosing to exercise their right to work despite a union boss-ordered strike action. The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and adjudicating disputes between employers, unions, and individual employees.
Claire Jordan, who works at Safeway in Greeley, Rebecca White, who works at Safeway in Longmont, and Dustin Mattos and Rebecca Lawless-Mattos, who both work at a Lakewood Safeway location, are demanding that NLRB Region 27 investigate and prosecute UFCW Local 7 union bosses for violating their rights under the NLRA.
According to the charges, after the workers validly resigned their union membership in June 2025, union officials informed the workers around January 9, 2026 that they would be subject to “internal union charges…for, among other things, crossing the picket line while being a union member.”
The workers resigned their memberships in order to continue working after UFCW Local 7 union bosses ordered grocery workers at more than 40 Safeway stores and a distribution center in Colorado to strike in June 2025. Longstanding law says union bosses cannot impose “union discipline,” which frequently means four- or five-figure monetary fines, against workers who are not voluntary union members.
In addition to retaliating against nonmember workers, the charges say that UFCW Local 7 union officials have failed to comply with federal law by not providing the workers with the required financial disclosures under the Foundation-won Beck decision, which allows nonmember workers to withhold the portions of their forced dues that go to the UFCW’s political activities.
Colorado is one of the 24 states that lack Right to Work protections for workers, which allows UFCW union bosses to impose monopoly bargaining contracts that force employees to pay union fees as a condition of employment. By contrast, in Right to Work states like neighboring Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, union membership and union financial support are strictly voluntary.
The Safeway strike order came months after UFCW Local 7 had similarly ordered a strike at 79 King Soopers grocery stores in February 2025. As happened following the Safeway strike, King Soopers employees also turned to the National Right to Work Foundation for assistance in filing charges against the UFCW, in response to union officials issuing illegal fine threats against nonmembers for exercising their right to work during a strike.
The Foundation has seen a growing number of workers seeking aid in cases involving illegal retaliation from UFCW union bosses. Foundation attorneys assisted nonmember King Soopers employees targeted following a 2022 strike, and have secured numerous victories against UFCW, including for illegal strike fine threats during a union-ordered strike against Stop & Shop stores in New England.
“Once again, UFCW Local 7 union bosses are turning to threats and intimidation tactics against workers who chose to rebuff union strike orders and work to support themselves and their families,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “The Foundation will continue to assist grocery workers defending themselves against these recidivist UFCW union bosses.”
