This week, it is with deep sadness that we mourn the loss of ten lives in a senseless shooting in Colorado. This atrocity strikes us particularly hard, not only because it comes less than a week after another mass shooting in Atlanta, but because it happened in a grocery store.

32 of our UFCW brothers and sisters work at the King Soopers where the shooting took place. It’s hard to imagine, after spending a year working through a pandemic, fearing for their lives and the lives of their families, that these workers should have to fear for their lives again because of a man with a gun.

As this last year has proven, our members do not let us down in a crisis, and this tragedy was no exception. As UFCW Local 7 noted, “after gunshots rang out, grocery workers helped customers in the store find safety, directing shoppers to an exit at the back of the store, and assisted one another to escape the danger inside.”

With the victims and their families in our hearts, now is a time for us to offer more than thoughts and prayers – we must commit to making the safety of our communities our top priority. We must demand more. We join our UFCW brothers and sisters in calling on our employers and government officials to take action to prevent future tragedies like this from endangering even more of our country’s brave essential workers.