More than 8,000 workers at nearly 80 King Soopers stores went on strike for better wages and benefits on Wednesday after the latest round of negotiations between the Kroger Co-owned Colorado chain and the union failed. The strike started at 7:00 a.m. ET. The workers on strike work at King Soopers stores in the Denver metropolitan area, Boulder, Parker, and Broomfield cities of Colorado, UFCW Local 7 said. This is the latest in a string of labor strikes in the United States following similar events at Kellogg Co.’s U.S. cereal plants and Deere & Co. as rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and inflation pushes workers to demand higher wages and better working conditions. At King Soopers, workers have sought an increase in wages of at least $6 per hour for all. However, the company’s “last, best, and final offer” proposed raises of up to $4.50 per hour …