Representatives from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said Friday Pueblo's grocery workers followed their colleagues in Denver and Colorado Springs and rejected contract offers from King Soopers and Safeway.

"Voters turned out and overwhelmingly rejected the contract," said union spokeswoman Laura Chapin.

Key issues for the union are reductions in pension contributions by the company and wage and benefit inequity among workers, depending on whether they were hired before or after the existing contract was ratified.

Ted Sandoval, a worker at the South Side Safeway, said the union is upset because the current proposal calls for a reduction in the company's pension contributions by more than half. Paul Marquez, a retired Safeway meat cutter, said the two-tier wage system is unfair because people are getting paid less than their co-workers and are doing the same work.

Marquez notes that the companies' requests for concessions comes at a time when they are bucking current economic trends.

"It would be different if the companies weren't making any money," he said. "But they've been profitable for years."

Pueblo workers cast their votes in three separate sessions Friday.