Rejecting a four-year wage freeze, and the end of employer-covered healthcare and other benefits (see WIT for Nov. 7, 2002), 9,000 employees of the grocery chain Dominick’s---taken over by the Safeway Corporation in 1998---have granted their United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union officers the authority to call a strike. Having already offered to forgo raises or benefits improvements, and seeking only to maintain current benefit levels and receive a cost of living adjustment to keep up with inflation, the workers have asked management to make good on its promise to continue talking beyond its claimed “last, best and final offer.” Despite customer and investor disapproval of its announced intention of closing all Dominick’s stores and selling them off in the event of a strike, Safeway Corporation has so far not responded to the workers’ requests to return to the negotiating table since their contract expired this weekend.
See "Dominick's employees clear way for walkout (and Update: “Still no talks between Dominick's, union”)", DELROY ALEXANDER, Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2002