Adelaide PepsiCo workers set to strike
Workers who make Doritos and Smith’s Chips in Adelaide will go on strike over what they say was an “insulting pay offer” from employer PepsiCo.
More than 150 Adelaide PepsiCo staff will go on strike this afternoon in an attempt to get a better pay offer out of their employer.
The workers – who make pantry staples like Smith’s Chips, Doritos and Twisties at the company’s Regency Park facility – will go on four-hour work stoppages from 4.30pm today in retaliation for what they have called a “slap in the face” pay offer.
United Workers Union lead organiser Imogen Barker said under the current pay agreement that expired in February workers received wage increases of 2.6 per cent over the last three years totalling 7.8 per cent while inflation in Adelaide rose by almost 16 per cent.
This equates to a real wage cut of 8 per cent, Barker said.
PepsiCo has offered staff a 12 per cent raise over the next three years in negotiations with workers, but this was rebuffed as workers want a 15 per cent raise over the next three years to catch wages up with inflation.
They also claim they’re worse off than their PepsiCo counterparts in Queensland, who are paid 12 per cent more for the same work on identical products sold at identical prices.
A PepsiCo spokesperson said the offer was “fair and reasonable”.
“Our people are our top priority and we are committed to working with them and the Unions to continue discussions in good faith and come to an agreement that is acceptable to our employees,” the spokesperson said.
“We believe the wage offer is fair and reasonable. Our pay rates are above industry standard in South Australia and reflect our commitment to employ and manufacture locally.”
Barker, who has been working with members on this campaign for the last six months, told InDaily that workers were “forced into taking strike action… due to being slapped in the face by food giant PepsiCo and the pay offers they’ve been putting on the table”.
“PepsiCo has been making some megaprofits of $106 million in 2023 alone. PepsiCo is a multi-billion-dollar company. They have more than enough to provide these increases to workers,” she said.
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Strike action will continue through to the weekend, after which Barker said “we’ll be discussing next steps and we’ll continue to bargain in good faith moving forward”.
“It’s time to respect these workers and the success that their workers bring to PepsiCo,” she said.
“That is the least they could do.
“The reality is that rent, mortgages, the cost of living has skyrocketed and workers just want to keep their heads above water.”
