The women, who began their hunger strike Wednesday, said they will continue until the government takes note of their plight.
After one woman came to Moscow in January to plead Baykit's case to bureaucrats in the prime minister's office, Finance Ministry government officials said that they had dispatched 1 billion of the 4.3 billion rubles which were owed to the town.
Svetlana Khudorovskaya, 36, one of the striking women, said that enough money got through for each worker to get about 50,000 rubles -- roughly $30 -- in January, but there has been no payment since, and no payment for the debt that had been piling up since last July.
Baykit's stores carry nothing but pasta, bread and margarine, she said.
Khudorovskaya said the women have set no limit on the duration of their protest action.
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