Why hundreds of Frito-Lay workers have been striking
Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal
Ron Sadler
By Harmeet Kaur, CNN
Workers at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, say it used to be one of the best jobs in town a place of shared meals, group outings and community.
In recent years, though, employees and union members say the facility where Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos are made has become another toxic work environment.
Hundreds of Frito-Lay workers at the Topeka facility are in week three of a strike over what union leaders describe as long hours, forced overtime, stagnating wages and a diminished quality of life. It’s the first strike at the plant in its decades of operation.
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Workers at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, agreed on Friday to end a strike that had dragged on for nearly three weeks over issues that had persisted for years, voting to ratify a contract that will increase their pay and give them additional time off.
With companies struggling to fill empty positions in the wake of the pandemic, and job postings at their highest levels since 2000, the workers were going into the negotiations from a strong position.
The more than 800 workers began striking earlier this month to protest working conditions and long hours. Representing them was the International President of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which said that employees were being forced to work seven days a week, up to 12 hours per shift, and have been required to work double and triple shifts.
Workers at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, say it used to be one of the best jobs in town a place of shared meals, group outings and community. In recent years, though, employees and union members say the facility where Doritos, Cheetos and Tostitos are made has become another toxic work environment. Hundreds of Frito-Lay workers at the Topeka facility are in week three of a strike over what union leaders describe as long hours, forced overtime, stagnating wages and a diminished quality of life. It s the first strike at the plant in its decades of operation. Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 218 union have called on the snack food company to provide better working conditions and pay. Among their grievances are so-called suicide shifts, in which employees work a full eight-hour day plus four hours of overtime with little turnaround time before the next shift.
Despite union leadership not recommending the latest contract offer from Frito-Lay, union members on strike voted Friday to approve the proposal.
That vote to ratify the contract an offer made after three straight days of negotiations between Frito-Lay and the union representing workers at its Topeka plant brings a nearly three-week-long labor strike outside the plant to an end.
Members of Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union voted Friday to approve an offer that gives all union members a 4% pay raise over two years and guarantees workers at least one day off each week. The last offer from the company was accepted by the membership this evening, said Mark Benaka, business manager for Local 218. Strike over.
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