The human cost of Doritos: Why workers at a Frito-Lay factory are on strike

As of midnight on 5 July, hundreds of employees at one of the nation’s largest snack manufacturers went on strike, demanding better workplace protections and an end to forced overtime that has pushed Frito-Lay workers in Topeka, Kansas to the brink.

For nearly two weeks, roughly 600 workers at the Frito-Lay plant have been on strike, calling for better pay, stronger workplace protections and an end to unpredictable overtime schedules and staff shortages that workers say have endangered their lives on the job and stretched them too thin despite years of warnings.

Workers have reported what they say are stagnant wages that have not kept pace with the cost of living and no meaningful raises in more than a decade despite the company reaping billions of dollars in profits during the coronavirus pandemic.