PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Tell Cub Foods: Ensure Fair Work Conditions and Wages for Cleaning Workers in Your Stores
  1. Signatures
    2,050 out of 2,500
    Petitioning
    1. CEO, Cub Foods (Keith Wyche)
  2. Sponsored By
    Minnesotans for a Fair Economy
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________

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

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Ensure Fair Work Conditions and Wages for Cleaning Workers in your Stores

Dear Mr. Wyche,

I am writing to urge you to start a conversation with the cleaning workers who clean Cub Foods stores in Minneapolis.

These workers have tried for more than a year to work with you to create a code of conduct that ensures fair work conditions and wages in your stores, but haven't received a response.

During the past decade cleaning workers in Cub Foods stores have seen wages plummet by more than 25% -- with the vast majority now earning just $7.25. And at the same time workloads have swelled thanks to staffing levels that have been slashed.

Unfortunately, this problem isn’t unique to the Twin Cities. Across the country the Department of Labor has filed suits on behalf of cleaning workers owed unpaid wages and suffering through horrible work conditions -- in an extreme case the DOJ even pursued slave labor charges.

In the Twin Cities, cleaning workers aren’t content to sit back until conditions in Cub Foods stores get this bad. That’s why they’ve been working for more than a year with local non-profit Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) to open a dialogue with you.

Cub Foods prides itself on being a cornerstone of the communities its stores are located in. We both know it falls far short of this standard to allow any workers in your stores to take on heavier and heavier workloads and then have their wages reduced to levels where they can’t afford to feed their own families.

For whatever reason you have ignored the requests from CTUL and retail cleaning workers for more than a year. They have conducted boycotts, marches with hundreds of people, and now a hunger strike with no response from your company.

It is long past time for you to meet with these workers to create a code of conduct that will ensure fair work conditions and wages in your Cub Foods stores.

Thank you,

[Your name]

Press Inquiries