GRAND JUNCTION, COLO.- Controversy erupts at your local grocery store as employees from Safeway, City Market and Albertsons on the Western Slope say their contracts are unfair compared to workers on the Front Range.

Workers we spoke with say their contract proposals are missing a crucial element-- a preventative health care program. They say workers on the Front Range already have this in their contracts.

Sandra Carver has been the manager of the photo lab for City Market in Steamboat Springs for three years. "If you don't take a stand for something, it's like you continue with the same lack of respect we've gotten for the last four years," she said.

Local grocery store workers say they're making a dollar less than their counterparts on the Front Range-- and they're not happy.

Some Western Slope contracts expire at the end of the month-- and the rest in June. Workers say they're looking for a compromise. Carver says recent discussions haven't gotten far.

"None of the lead negotiators that could make any decisions at all were present. So every question we asked, their response was we have to call Washington or somewhere else and get an answer."

City Market, Safeway and Albertsons workers represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 in Colorado have now banded together.

"We're not asking for a million dollars, unreasonable salaries. Just comparable salaries with every other City Market and Safeway store. That they no longer discriminate who can survive and who cannot. And people are just barley surviving," Carver said.

Workers say they hope to avoid a strike-- and keep your aisle open at the grocery store. A union representative says they're hopeful they can agree on a fair contract for workers.

We were unable to reach Safeway or the other stores for comment regarding this issue. We'll keep trying.