A group of ex-Safeway employees filed suit.

Five former employees of Safeway Stores filed a $400-million class-action lawsuit in Alameda Superior Court, claiming they were unfairly treated when the supermarket chain fired them in August as part of a leveraged buyout of the company. Also named as a defendant was Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the New York investment firm that arranged the $4.4 billion buyout. The former employees said in their complaint that they had been promised job security in lieu of higher wages and that KKR had induced Safeway to break those guarantees in order to help finance the buyout.