UPDATE (6/1/2011): After twelve days, cleaning workers have suspended their hunger strike at the request of community leaders who were concerned about its negative health impacts. Cub Foods still has not talked with these workers about improving work conditions and wages in their stores, so we need to keep up the pressure.

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For more than a year, workers who clean Cub Foods supermarkets in Minnesota have tried to contact Cub Foods representatives to open a dialogue about fair work conditions and wages in their stores.

In recent years, the vast majority of workers have seen wages drop from approximately $10 an hour to $7.50 an hour -- often while taking on longer hours and heavier workloads at the same time.

"We work in a place surrounded by food, while a lot of the time we're not able to feed our own families because our wages are so miserable," explained one former cleaning worker.

A store boycott and even a march with hundreds of people were ignored by the grocery chain, but the workers have refused to be discouraged or give up.

On May 21, cleaning workers began a hunger strike to bring attention to their fight.

More than a dozen workers have participated in the fast, with more continuing to join until the hunger strike ends.

We can support their fight by showing Cub Foods that all of Minnesota is watching.

Tell Cub Foods to end this hunger strike now by working with cleaning workers in its stores to create a code of conduct that ensures fair work conditions and wages.

Twin Cities-based non-profit Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha has played a central role in helping cleaning workers in this fight. For background on their actions during the past year visit their website: http://ctul.net