Three former executives from The Kroger Co.’s Los Angeles-based Ralphs division have filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that it wrongfully terminated them after the bitter 2003-04 Southern California labor strike and lockout.

The suit was filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by Patrick McGowan, a former Ralphs regional VP, and Scott Drew and Karen Montoya, former zone managers. The trio was acquitted in June of fraud and conspiracy in a scheme to rehire locked-out workers using fake Social Security numbers during the strike.

“The companies had to come up with names, and it's our position that our clients were offered as sacrificial lambs,” Michael Amir, an attorney for Drew, was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.