The people who make your Cheetos, Fritos, and Ruffles can put in some seriously long hours doing it.
“I am a very hard-working woman,” says Hellen Teater, standing on the picket line across from the Frito Lay plant in Topeka this week. “I work like hell.”
She said her job leaves little time to spend with her family.
“Because I’ve been working seven days a week,” Teater said, “like, 84 hours a week.”
Teater is mostly satisfied with the money she makes. She makes double her normal 40 hours, $20-an-hour wage with all the overtime she puts in.
On Friday, the rank-and-file of Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union voted to approve the latest offer their leadership brought from management, ending a nearly three-week-long strike that made national headlines.
The contract approved by union members would guarantee one day off a week and includes 4% raises over the next two years. It would also end what workers call “suicide shifts,” two 12-hour shifts, with only eight hours off in between.
The company made concessions, but the workers found themselves in a much stronger position than any in recent history to get the workplace and the wages they’re bargaining for.
Striking workers said Frito-Lay routinely forced workers to pick up extra hours and skip scheduled days off. Even those with seniority, like Marlon Smith.
“I’ve been here 22 years,” he said, “and I still get forced for seven days a week.”
Eighty-four-hour workweeks have made headlines, but the company said those are very rare. In a statement, Frito-Lay said only about 2% of its Topeka workers average more than 60 hours a week.
But workplace conditions aren’t the only beef worker had with Frito-Lay. Some employees have had bonuses or pay increases, but other employees say they haven’t had a raise in nine years.
The proposed agreement would address that with 4% raises over the next two years.
But even with a new contract approved, Frito-Lay employees may find other opportunities as other companies try to recruit disgruntled workers.
Workers have more leverage now, and signs, literal signs, of that are impossible to miss.
