On the Picket Line
By Marie Kelly posted on July 21, 2021
Frito-Lay production never slowed production during the pandemic. Mark Benaka, business manager for Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM) Local 218 and a Frito-Lay retiree after 37 years, commented: “I’ve learned that when something’s hitting Americans beneath the belt, the two main items that never suffer are snack foods and alcohol.” (labornotes.org, July 2021)
Snacks strike
Exhausted by working seven days a week, 600 workers walked out on strike July 5 at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kan. The Bakery Workers hit the picket line to demand an end to abusive working conditions endured since before the pandemic.