Frito-Lay workers strike for end to ‘suicide shifts’: NPR

Frito-Lays workers at the Topeka, Kan., plant at one of the 30 plants the company operates in the US, declined a contract offer from the company earlier this month. They say they want better pay and working conditions.

Danny Johnston/AP

hide caption

switch caption

Danny Johnston/AP

Frito-Lays workers at the Topeka, Kan., plant at one of the 30 plants the company operates in the US, declined a contract offer from the company earlier this month. They say they want better pay and working conditions.

Danny Johnston/AP

Hundreds of Frito-Lay workers in Topeka, Kansas, are in their third week of strike, citing so-called “suicide squads” and poor working conditions at the manufacturing and distribution plant at a time when the company’s net sales growth surpassed all its goals.

Staff members say blistering 90-degree temperatures on the picket line are preferable to the 100-degree-plus heat that awaits them in the production warehouse on any given summer day. They demand an end to mandatory overtime and 84-hour weeks that they believe leave little room for a meaningful quality of life. They are also looking for increases to match the rise in the cost of living.

The PepsiCo-owned company disputes their claims, calling them “grossly exaggerated” and saying a recent contract offer earlier this month more than met the terms of the union, Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union.

Meanwhile, workers say they want more concessions before going back to the factory. They have also called for a national boycott of Frito-Lay products, as well as those produced by PepsiCo, for the remainder of the strike. If successful, the boycott would mean living in a world without Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, Tostitos and Sun Chips. Temporarily, at least.

A call to end “suicide services”

One of the most controversial issues during the negotiation process, according to union leaders, was the regular use of forced overtime at the factory, resulting in so-called “suicide shifts” where “many of the more than 800 workers at the factory are only given an eight-hour break between get services.”

NPR was unable to reach union officials, but Local 218 Chief Steward Paul Klemme on Monday described how it worked in a podcast interview on Monday. He said that workers who clock in for a 7am to 3pm shift are often forced to work four hours overtime,” he said. [the company will] turn right and bring you at 3am. So you only have 8 hours off to go home, shower, see your family, sleep and go back to work.”

It’s an unsustainable schedule that has been put in place, he says, as a way to delay tackling a larger staff shortage of about 100 employees.

In a statement earlier this week, the union’s international chairman, Anthony Shelton, wrote: “The union has repeatedly asked the company to hire more workers, but despite record profits, Frito Lay’s management has rejected this request.”

Frito-Lay says cases of mandatory overtime have been overestimated

Company officials said claims about employees being forced to work regular double or triple shifts at the Topeka facility “are grossly exaggerated.”

The factory, one of 30 in the US, employs about 850 people. But, officials said, only about 20 about 2% average more than 60 hours a week.

“Our data shows that 19 employees worked 84 hours in a given workweek in 2021, of which 16 were due to employees volunteer work for overtime and only need 3 to work,” the company said Monday.

Officials also noted that the latest contract offer, which was rejected by employees on July 3, includes a 60-hour workweek limit and eliminates 8-hour turnaround shifts.

The recent contract offer also included a 2% pay increase for the next two years across all job classifications. According to the company, “This is what the union proposed for pay increases, and Frito-Lay accepted the union’s proposal.”

The two sides returned to the negotiating table on Monday.