Some Wichitans begin PepsiCo boycott as Frito-Lay workers strike
As employees of the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka continue the fourth day of a strike, some consumers in Wichita are choosing not to purchase Frito-Lay or PepsiCo products to send a signal to the company that they support the workers.
It’s the first strike by the union since 1973.
Monica Marks, a Wichita resident, took a list of Frito-Lay and PepsiCo brands with her to the grocery store this week. She said she hopes that if more consumers avoid the company’s products, it will impact Frito-Lay and convince it to negotiate a better contract with the union.
“If we can avoid it, even with some adjustments, we won’t cross a picket line,” Marks said. “It’s not difficult to just buy a different brand of chips and soda.”
About 600 workers in Topeka are on strike to protest mandatory overtime, pay and working conditions, said Brad Schmidt, vice president for the Midwest region for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, which represents the strikers. Around 750 workers are employed at the plant full-time.
The collective action came after the workers’ union, Local 218, recommended that members approve the proposed contract.
The union recommended the contract after the company modified it from a version the workers already voted down in May, Schmidt said. But employees have been working overtime and facing challenges that stem from being understaffed for years already, he said.
That has led to a lot of built up anger and frustration among workers who were ready to take a stand against it.
“That the union membership rejected this fully recommended agreement suggests union leadership is out of touch with the sentiments of Frito-Lay employees,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Because the union had fully recommended our tentative agreement, we do not anticipate any further negotiations with the union for the foreseeable future.”
For unions, a strike is usually the last resort, because it’s not easy on workers to go without full pay for an undetermined amount of time, said John Nave, executive vice president of the Kansas AFL-CIO. The local union that represents Frito-Lay workers in Topeka is not a member of the state AFL-CIO.
The strike at Frito-Lay is long overdue, said Nave, a member of the Topeka community whose family has worked at the plant. If consumers choose not to purchase Frito-Lay or PepsiCo branded products while workers strike, it will send a message to the company that communities across Kansas want to see better working conditions in Topeka.
“This is gonna tarnish their company,” Nave said. “And I’m not gonna feel sorry for them because of the way they treat their workers.”
Boycotting Frito-Lay, PepsiCo brands
Kim Webb is a longtime union member at Textron Aviation in Wichita also choosing to boycott Frito-Lay and PepsiCo products during the Kansas strike.
“The biggest thing is hitting the company in the pocketbook when they’re not treating workers fairly and not negotiating with them,” Webb said.
Webb’s union, District 70 of the Machinists Union in Wichita, posted an image to its Facebook page showing all the different brands that PepsiCo, the parent company of Frito-Lay, produces.
“Please consider Not Purchasing any Frito-Lay, Pepsi, Gatorade, Starbucks, Lipton, Tropicana and Stacy’s Products until a resolution or agreement is in place to protect the members and their family’s Financial Livelihood’s,” the local union’s Facebook post read.
PepsiCo owns popular beverage brands including Propel, Mountain Dew and more. It owns food and snack brands like Doritos, Cheetos, Quaker and more.
Webb was at lunch with a friend earlier this week and was about to order a Pepsi to drink, but chose to drink water instead.
Individual consumers aren’t the only ones deciding to stand with workers and avoid the company’s products. One Wichita food truck owner also posted that they would not purchase or sell any Frito-Lay products until the strike ended.
“Sadly, this means we won’t be serving Fritos or our Walkin’ Frito Pies on the cart for the time being,” a Facebook post on the Wheat Street Dogs page read.
Workers frustrated for years
The Frito-Lay strike stands out because members have pointed to a long history of poor working conditions there, Nave said, adding that he’s seen workers on strike who have worked at Frito-Lay for more than two decades.
“I was glad to see they stood their ground and stood together,” Nave said.
Despite the company’s statement that it is not negotiating with the union “for the foreseeable future,” Nave said it wouldn’t be surprising if the two parties are continuing conversations behind closed doors.
What’s more surprising to Nave is that union leadership recommended members approve the contract.
“It’s surprising that the leadership would go with something that the membership said undoubtedly, ‘No more,’” he said.
The company said the proposed agreement with the union included wage increases both years and rules that would have reduced overtime hours. Workers voted against the agreement on Saturday and began to strike on Monday.
“While the union has suggested that Frito-Lay didn’t meet its terms, Frito-Lay had agreed to the union’s proposed economic terms,” the company’s statement reads. “In addition, it was Frito-Lay, not the union, that proposed overtime limitations.”
Frito-Lay said it will focus on continuing to run operations at the plant in Topeka, adding that it has a contingency plan for employee safety.
“The strike unnecessarily puts our employees at risk of economic hardship and will inevitably divide the workforce,” the company spokesperson said.
The strike does mean workers will lose out on wages. The international union has a strike fund that will provide workers on the picket line with $105 per week, starting after the first week of the strike and remaining for up to 10 weeks, Schmidt said.
“You won’t get rich on it,” he said. “But we really have a good outpouring of support from the community.”
The union has also worked to set up food and utility assistance for the workers.
Nave said it’s too soon to tell how long the strike will go on. The workers are in uncharted territory but support, both financial and moral, from the community will help them continue to push for a contract agreement that workers can vote yes on.
“It could be resolved by the end of the week, it could be resolved tomorrow,” Nave said. “But it also could go on for a couple months or longer.”
Schmidt, with the union, said they have opened the door to meet with the company and negotiate again, but don’t have a date yet. He’s hopeful they can resolve the issues in a couple of weeks.
“It’s something that has been boiling and boiling, and it finally blew the lid off the pot this time,” Schmidt said. “The company did come across and make some changes. They had the best offer on economics for a number of years now. But there’s so much frustration and anger that it wasn’t enough.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 1:04 PM.
