NEW: Moments ago, we sent @FritoLay the questions below.
They are simple, factual questions about the extent to which they abuse workers in this country.
We hope they answer. If they refuse, it will be a damning admission. What are they hiding?
Here's what we want to know:
1. How many Frito-Lay facilities in the U.S. currently force people to work suicide shifts?
(Suicide/"squeeze" shifts are back-to-back 12-hour shifts with only 8 hours off in between.)
2. How many Frito-Lay facilities use forced overtime (aka “overtime requirements”) to compel people to work more than 40 hours/week under threat of termination?
3. Do Frito-Lay workers always receive extra pay when working overtime?
Do any workers ever receive standard or even sub-standard pay when working more than 40 hours during a week?
4. Frito-Lay said it would cap forced overtime at its Topeka facility at 60 hours/week after workers went on strike.
Is there a cap on forced overtime at any other Frito-Lay facility in the U.S.? How many Frito-Lay facilities require some people to work 84 hours per week?
5. Some Frito-Lay workers say they have worked for weeks or months without a single day off.
Are there any caps on how many consecutive days a worker can be required to work at a Frito-Lay facility in the U.S.?
6. If a Frito-Lay employee is injured at work while performing routine tasks, will Frito-Lay pay for worker’s compensation?
Why is Frito-Lay fighting to avoid paying for Brandon Ingram's worker's compensation?
7. Does Frito-Lay approve of private agents stalking and secretly filming its employees and former employees and their families and children?
If not, what is it doing to stop this practice?
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More than one thousand @MineWorkers are taking their strike from Alabama to NYC today and picketing in front of the offices of BlackRock — the largest shareholder in Warrior Met Coal. They’re joined by union allies from across the country, including @SusanSarandon.
.@KooperCaraway: “I’ll tell you this — young workers... South Dakotans, Californians, workers all over the world are going to stand with you and support you and there’s nothing BlackRock or any other rich asshole can do about it.”
.@WillAttig: "I'm not just fighting for you, the individual coal miners. I'm trying to show an example for a generation of workers to begin to use their collective power... and take the power back."
Frito-Lay factory workers are penalized or even fired for taking time off.
The company makes workers earn “points” to get time off. Earning one point requires working 31 days in a row and points are docked for opting out of overtime.
Workers regularly do 84-hour weeks.
Workers in Topeka reveal they’ve worked up to 5 months without a single day off.
They say that forced overtime is destroying families, ruining marriages, and even costing lives. Multiple coworkers, driven to exhaustion, have died by suicide.
In response to the striking workers’ demands to end forced overtime, “suicide shifts,” and 84-hour weeks, Frito-Lay management offered this:
“There will be no more working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (84 hours), unless an employee volunteers to work that much.”
NEW: Texas Republicans have a new voter suppression bill that's even worse than the one Democrats stopped in May.
This time, Republicans want *monthly* voter purges and a ban on drive-thru voting.
They've just launched a special legislative session to ram it through.
The ban on drive-thru voting and the voter purges would disproportionately impact disabled voters and Latino voters.
“They’re actually going backward because of these discriminatory acts, and frankly, it just pisses me off," one disabled voter said. texastribune.org/2021/07/05/tex…
Democrats & activists rallied in Austin on Thursday, promising to do whatever was necessary to block a new voter suppression bill.
They also called for the Senate to drop the filibuster and pass the #ForThePeopleAct to end the GOP attack on voting rights.
NEW: Half of all stores opening in the U.S. this year are dollar stores. These chains prey on low-income communities, shut down local businesses, and attract violent crime.
But cities like Fort Worth are fighting back and showing how working people can defeat corporate greed.
In 2019, there were at least 75 dollar stores clustered on the majority-minority east side of Fort Worth, a city divided by a highway.
When another dollar store moved in, residents took action. First, they protested. Then, they fought to change the law.
Fort Worth ultimately passed a new ordinance that limits the spread of dollar stores.
It also requires that many new stores carry fresh produce instead of just peddling junk in a food desert.
Similar laws have also been passed in Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Birmingham.