According to officials with UFCW Local 5, which represents Bay Area Safeway employees, union officials were asked to hold back picket lines just after midnight Saturday. The strikes could soon affect over 200 stores throughout the region as 25,000 union workers continue to demand higher wages and better benefits.

Marcuz said he started at Safeway as a courtesy clerk and spent 13 years of his career in management before taking on a new role as an inventory control clerk, also known as a receiver.