Current Events > Frito-Lay Workers Go on Strike with Some Claiming They Face 84-Hour Work Weeks

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https://www.foodandwine.com/news/frito-lay-worker-strike-topeka

Imagine a world without Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, and Tostitos. A world without Lay's potato chips, Sun Chips, and more. Frito-Lay products are ubiquitous across the country and workers at one of the brand's largest manufacturing facilities are hoping that halting production on these snacks will give them the leverage they need to receive the pay and benefits they believe they deserve.

Last Monday, around 600 employees (reportedly about 80 percent of the full-time workforce) went on strike at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas one of more than 30 manufacturing plants the company operates in the United States. Brad Schmidt vice president for the Midwest region for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers which represents the workers told The Wichita Eagle that the union was striking for better pay, better working conditions, and less mandatory overtime.

The overtime issue seems to be especially contentious. Mark McCarter, who works at the plant, told the Topeka Capital-Journal that Frito-Lay often has employees working 12 hours per day, seven days a week apparently with as little as eight hours of break time in between shifts. In an opinion piece published by the paper, Cherie Renfro backed up this assertion, piling on plenty of claims of her own, including this shocking allegation: "When a co-worker collapsed and died, you had us move the body and put in another co-worker to keep the line going," she wrote.

Renfro also stated that one classification of worker in the plant had seen its wages increase by just 20 cents per hour over the past decade. Monk Drapeaux-Stewart a box drop technician told the site Labor Notes that his wages are up just 77 cents over the past 12 years. "Milk's gone up. Meat has gone up. Everything has gone up," Tracy Johnson, a 30-year Frito-Lay veteran, told the Kansas News Service. "But our wages have stayed the same."

But Frito-Lay appeared ready to stand its ground, suggesting that after nine months of negotiations, they believed they had already come to a deal before union members ultimately voted against it on July 3. In an emailed statement, Frito-Lay stated, "While the union has suggested that Frito-Lay didn't meet its terms, Frito-Lay had agreed to the union's proposed economic terms," explaining that "each member of the union negotiating committee, including the union president, individually committed to supporting the agreement and encouraging Frito-Lay employees to vote in favor of ratifying it."

Frito-Lay continued, "That the union membership rejected this fully recommended agreement suggests union leadership is out of touch with the sentiments of Frito-Lay employees. Because the union had fully recommended our tentative agreement, we do not anticipate any further negotiations with the union for the foreseeable future

Frito-Lay will be focused on continuing to run the operations of our plant in Topeka and has a contingency plan in place to ensure employee safety. We will continue to be attentive to the situation and welcome any employees who wish to continue to work as they are legally entitled to do so."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk2MJKuiBcU

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Bless

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no mah chips

I wish I could see the agreement. Lack of transparency with big corporations are exactly how they let people die on their floors and sweep em into the pile to bring in the next in line.

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The lowest paid factory job at the Fritolay plant in my town is $22/hr

They must make 6 figures with those slave hours

They passed on me working there though, so I dont feel bad

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Messed up. 60 hours should be max and even that is too high

Kingbuffet posted...

Messed up. 60 hours should be max and even that is too high

It's no wonder kids AND parents are so fucked nowadays. Parents never home and the parents are loose cannons because they work 80+ hours a week.

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I already feel like I live in a world without Cheetos because I can never goddamn find my Simply white cheddar crunchy Cheetos

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Nice i never liked frito

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M_Live posted...

Mandatory overtime should be outright illegal

This, absolutely

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Pretty sure that's illegal to have people work more than 4 12 hour shifts in a row, so idk about this news.

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Johnny_Nutcase posted...

It's no wonder kids AND parents are so fucked nowadays. Parents never home and the parents are loose cannons because they work 80+ hours a week.

Back in the 60s a single father could support a family have a home and car with just a factory job, we got fucked by 1% the corporations bending over for them now they own more than 50% of American networth

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WilliamPorygon posted...

Imagine a world without Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, and Tostitos. A world without Lay's potato chips, Sun Chips, and more.

Eh I'd survive

CEOs: able to purchase small countries
workers: 50 to 80 hour work weeks and not enough to make ends meet

This is literally the reason we fear socialism in America. We're told we'll have realities like these. Like, somehow, it's okay to do this shit if it's the opposite end of the spectrum doing it.

What made a millionaire out of Mr. Frito-Lay

Made a fat motherfucker out of me

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If I were those workers I'd be fucking ecstatic to getting that much OT and money. What's the hardest thing to do in a potato chip company? Drive the trucks and stock those 12oz or however heavy those chips are in the isle? Move light boxes in the factory? They literally are making more than 2.5 times their salary each week for doing less work than Mcdonald's workers.

M_Live posted...

Mandatory overtime should be outright illegal

they should be getting 1.5 times what they make in OT. 40+ hrs of OT per week? thats a lot of money

why the fuck is a plant that makes a product that doesn't have large swing seasons have mandatory ot?

fix your processes, management.

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BigB0ss13 posted...

If I were those workers I'd be fucking ecstatic to getting that much OT and money. What's the hardest thing to do in a potato chip company? Drive the trucks and stock those 12oz or however heavy those chips are in the isle? Move light boxes in the factory? They literally are making more than 2.5 times their salary each week for doing less work than Mcdonald's workers.

I'm laughing so hard right now at how stupid this post is

Good. Strike until wages actually cover your monthly payments.

Axiom posted...

I'm laughing so hard right now at how stupid this post is

Cause you know it's easy money. Someone here said lowest paid job in the plant is $22/hour. So 22 times 40 hours is $880. 22 times 1.5 (the rate that workers should be getting for OT) is $33/hour times that by 44 hours of OT is $1452. $1452+$880=$2332/week or $9328/month. Easy $$$

Im more outraged by the union. This is an instance of a union failing the people that it's supposed to protect. They're the ones that at some point, most likely multiple points agreed to shitty raises and refused to protect those under them from shitty working conditions.

That's your entire reason for existing and you fucking failed. You stole money from people you useless pieces of shit. The company itself at least openly is trying to work in it's own interests and doesn't care about it's employees.

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OT gets taxed heavily though. It reaches a point where its not even worth it because you're basically working for the government and your energy would be better spent doing anything else.

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Kolibri X posted...

OT gets taxed heavily though. It reaches a point where its not even worth it because you're basically working for the government and your energy would be better spent doing anything else.

This is a common misconception.
OT is taxed the same as regular pay. It just often puts you into a higher tax bracket which most places calculate by pay period. This results in you either being taxed appropriately because you made a lot of money that year or if overtime isn't consistent, you'll have overpaid and you'll get it back on your refund. If you have issues with giving the government a free loan there are other ways to have your pay adjusted to avoid it.

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Kolibri X posted...

OT gets taxed heavily though. It reaches a point where its not even worth it because you're basically working for the government and your energy would be better spent doing anything else.

what?

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BigB0ss13 posted...

Cause you know it's easy money. Someone here said lowest paid job in the plant is $22/hour. So 22 times 40 hours is $880. 22 times 1.5 (the rate that workers should be getting for OT) is $33/hour times that by 44 hours of OT is $1452. $1452+$880=$2332/week or $9328/month. Easy $$$

Honestly, I'm with this

But, hire twice the people and work a month and get off a month. Punish me and set me free Fatherlay

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So quit

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FortuneCookie posted...

CEOs: able to purchase small countries
workers: 50 to 80 hour work weeks and not enough to make ends meet

This is literally the reason we fear socialism in America. We're told we'll have realities like these. Like, somehow, it's okay to do this shit if it's the opposite end of the spectrum doing it.

Yeah no. You think these companies want to pay all these guys overtime?

We're seeing these hours everywhere due to labor shortages.

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PC-Builder_Pony posted...

Pretty sure that's illegal to have people work more than 4 12 hour shifts in a row, so idk about this news.

thats cute lol

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Tell her friends, like Fritos, I'm tryin to lay.

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I dont get it, 84 hours is like 16 hours a day over 7 days or 16 hours over 5 days. Im guessing every hour over 8 hours is OT aswell? why not just have more employees to cover those shifts

why have the same person working long as hours?

toyota posted...

I dont get it, 84 hours is like 16 hours a day over 7 days or 16 hours over 5 days. Im guessing every hour over 8 hours is OT aswell? why not just have more employees to cover those shifts

why have the same person working long as hours?

It's still probably cheaper to have employees work the OT believe it or not. All the fringe benefits like health insurance etc. don't need bought again if you make an employee work more as opposed to hiring a new one.

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Can i get a list of products to boycott in solidarity?

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Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

Can i get a list of products to boycott in solidarity?

Aisle 3, 4, 9, 11, half of 12

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48 hour work weeks need to be the very maximum and not even the norm.

This is insanity. Boycott.

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BigB0ss13 posted...

If I were those workers I'd be fucking ecstatic to getting that much OT and money. What's the hardest thing to do in a potato chip company? Drive the trucks and stock those 12oz or however heavy those chips are in the isle? Move light boxes in the factory? They literally are making more than 2.5 times their salary each week for doing less work than Mcdonald's workers.

I thought it was mandatory OT though? Not everyone wants to work that many hours. It takes away vital time from their family if they have one

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Unsugarized_Foo posted...

Aisle 3, 4, 9, 11, half of 12

https://www.fritolay.com/brands

That's alot but not as much as I thought there would be

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Dat_Cracka_Jax posted...

https://www.fritolay.com/brands

That's alot but not as much as I thought there would be

Dont let em fool ya, they're just a piece of PepsiCo

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Squall28 posted...

Yeah no. You think these companies want to pay all these guys overtime?

We're seeing these hours everywhere due to labor shortages.

Sounds like someone that's never worked in a factory before. I did factory work from 2015 to 2018 and 50-60 hour weeks are a regular thing. Some areas of the factory would run you 7 days a week for weeks at a time.

This is about greedy companies willing to do anything to meet deadlines, and management too incompetent to get things done effectively.

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PC-Builder_Pony posted...

Pretty sure that's illegal to have people work more than 4 12 hour shifts in a row, so idk about this news.

YMMV, but the only federal standard is that anything beyond 40 hours a week is paid time and a half.

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I can see Fritos wanting to give compensation in the form of a bunch of bags of chips

I wish that would totally make headlines all over the world and the memes would be great


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