Interfaith Worker Justice is one of the most active social justice organizations in the country and lives out on a daily basis the call of Rerum Novarum and subsequent papal encyclicals for the Church to stand by workers. Now, they have joined hands with a group of workers going on a hunger strike to protest conditions for retail cleaning workers at Cub Foods.
“Workers across the country are concerned about the extreme deterioration of working conditions in the retail cleaning industry nationwide and want to ensure justice not only for retail cleaning workers in the Twin Cities but to ensure that retail cleaning workers across the country don't continue to see their wages drop and their workloads increase,” said Veronica Mendez of the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), which is affiliated with Interfaith Worker Justice.
According to a press release sent out last evening, the hunger strike comes only after repeated “attempts to reach out to representatives of the retail chain.” So far, according to the group, “the only response has been the firing of a worker leader involved in organizing, violent reactions to peaceful protesters, and the banning of CTUL organizers from Cub stores. CTUL has sent numerous letters to representatives of Cub Foods, including petition signatures of nearly 200 retail cleaning workers, organized a number of delegations to store headquarters, protests, marches, and press conferences, and received support from many community, religious and labor organizations who have endorsed the campaign.”
More information can be found at the IWJ website here.
