Current Events > Strike at Frito-Lay plant in Kansas is now on its third week

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/7/21/22586982/frito-lay-products-strike-boycott-topeka-kansas

Workers at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, have been on strike for more than two weeks asking for better working conditions and pay. The way they tell it, theyve got good reason to take action: Some of the plants 850 employees have been subjected to forced overtime and working 84-hour weeks, with no days off. One worker wrote a public letter to the company describing a harrowing scene where a coworker collapsed on the job and died. The people in charge, she wrote, had us move the body and put in another coworker to keep the line going.

Frito-Lay says its committed to providing a safe and fair workplace and has offered a two-year contract it believes addresses workers concerns, including capping required work hours at 60 hours a week. Thus far, the sides havent reached an agreement.

The strike has garnered quite a bit of attention in the media and online, as tends to happen with collective worker actions. (See: Amazon workers recent failed push to unionize in Alabama, or presidential candidates showing up on Stop & Shop picket lines.) As also tends to happen, theres discussion among members of the public of how to support the workers. The best way to do that isnt always clear social media posts help raise public awareness, but they dont accomplish much tangibly. The effectiveness of boycotts can vary. And focusing on a single companys bad actions can muddle the bigger systemic picture.

Mark McCarter, a palletizer and steward at Frito-Lay in Topeka, told Vice that he and his coworkers would rather nobody buy any Frito-Lay products as long as the strike lasts, including Fritos, Doritos, Tostitos, Funyuns, and Cheetos. He said they would prefer people avoid products from parent company PepsiCo, too. Thats a bit different from Amazon workers earlier this year, who specifically said they were not calling for a boycott.

https://twitter.com/MarchOnTheBoss/status/1418197213776388101


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Negrete, please keep up the good fight

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Thanks for the article I hadn't known all the specific details

But how will I make my frito pies?!

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Boycott time

Antifar posted...

One worker wrote a public letter to the company describing a harrowing scene where a coworker collapsed on the job and died. The people in charge, she wrote, had us move the body and put in another coworker to keep the line going.

Jesus christ.

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Good. Keep up the good fight.

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"Does it look like my shoes can hold my fat-ass for 84 hours?!"

Looks like there's going to be a bunch of Frito-Layoffs

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Don't mess with Kansas

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I cannot imagine the misery of working 12-hour shifts 7 days a week on a factory line. geez.

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Ive been boycotting them since I first heard about this. The only way to force these corporate elites to do right by the employees is when the consumer refuses to buy their stuff. Theyre not on a thin profit margin and theres no excuse for this. Corporate CEOs have begun to take home more and more and more money, especially since they revamped their workplace rules during the pandemic.

Short staffing, overworking, and underpaying are things that need to permanently stop. You might not get a new Tesla every month, but your workers damn sure deserve a living wage and enough time off to where they dont feel like company property.

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Solidarity.

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I'm buying store brand versions in solidarity with them.

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FL81 posted...

Looks like there's going to be a bunch of Frito-Layoffs

did you steal this from twitter

because this is hilarious

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