minneapolis

Dozens of supporters of hunger-striking retail cleaning workers, joined by U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, rallied Sunday in south Minneapolis to demand higher wages for supermarket floor cleaners.

The rally was held on public property near the Cub Foods store at the intersection of Minnehaha Avenue and Lake Street. Nonunionized floor cleaners, who make about $8 an hour, have been targeting Cub with their protest for nine days, claiming the grocery store chain isn't doing enough to help raise their wages and improve their working conditions.

Fourteen protesters are on a hunger strike, subsisting only on a mixture of water, lemon juice and maple syrup. Backpacking tents sat where some of the protesters and their supporters are staying, and collapsible chairs draped with jackets lined the curb in front of the store.

"This is about the whole industry," said Lucila Dominguez, who spoke through a translator and who works as a cleaner for businesses other than Cub. "It's about the workers at Cub, but it's about me, too." Dominguez joined the hunger strike Sunday.

A protest organizer, Veronica Mendez, said six protesters have been on hunger strikes over the entire nine days of the protest.

"I'm a big fan of Cub Foods," said Ellison, D-Minn. "They have given to food shelves. They have given to the tornado victims. They represent the best of the corporate community. ... We look at Cub as a corporate leader who could improve the working conditions for those workers. Just sit down and talk, and come to a conclusion that allows them to have a livable wage."

The protesters and other floor cleaners say Cub, a division of the Eden Prairie-based Supervalu Inc. and the Twin Cities' largest grocery chain, and other major retailers have stood by as the cleaners' wages and working conditions have been eroded by intense competition.

The cleaners don't actually work for Cub, but for cleaning companies contracted by the stores. Supervalu officials have argued that the floor cleaners should take up wages and working conditions with their own employers, not with Cub, but protesters say the problem really lies with the big retailers.

NORMAN DRAPER