(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Colorado Springs King Soopers employees are now voicing concerns about lack of communication.
This comes after the store on South Academy Boulevard closed becasue of possible asbestos in the building.
On Tuesday, King Soopers issued a statement saying: “[the store] temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution. The location is undergoing a remodel where recent testing indicated the possible existence of asbestos.”
But, when King Soopers closed, employees said they were left in the dark.
“We weren’t told about an investigation,” said Loretta Guy, a King Soopers employee and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union. “We were just told the store is closed.”
Guy said she ended up finding out why by asking around, instead of finding out from management.
“When they tapered off the pharmacy, I started asking questions. The night crew said, ‘oh, it’s possible asbestos’. Because they had asbestos machines and things of that nature. And that’s the only the communication we had was through employees.”
Guy added she is now fearing for herself and her son and daughter who work at the same store.
“That’s our whole family. And then you transfer it to the people at home. I can’t imagine what everybody else is feeling. We’re all feeling scared about the contamination of bringing it home and then the contamination of our bodies.”
In the release, King Soopers stated: “King Soopers is proactively addressing this situation and has hired independent experts. Additionally, Kings Soopers is working in full cooperation with the appropriate state agencies including the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment who are aiding in the evaluation and guiding future action.”
In the meantime, Guy said employees will be paid through June 24th.
“Then they’re going to outsource us to other — so we have are told, this hasn’t been told to us — or outsourced to other stores. We might get more information later, but we haven’t yet.”
The closure has raised other concerns as well, like this part of Colorado Springs becoming a food desert. Within a couple-mile radius, the only other grocery stores are a Walmart Neighborhood Market a few blocks north and a Walmart Supercenter to the southwest across I-25.
Not only that, but Guy said this particular King Soopers provided other services as well.
“The elderly — they come in just to have their communication for the day. And we’ll just communicate with everyone in the store for hours on end. That getting taken away is their livelihood of communication — and food!”
FOX21 has reached out to King Soopers for additional comments on communication with employees and has not yet heard back.
