Bare shelves remain as Woolies dispute with union rolls on

Woolworths’ customers are facing increasingly empty shelves as national business groups accuse the union of taking the ‘nuclear option’.

Woolworths workers on a picket line at the Dandenong South Distribution centre in Melbourne, which was meant to open at 6am but remained blocked. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling

Woolworths’ customers are facing increasingly empty shelves as the supermarket giant’s bitter dispute with the United Workers Union remains unresolved, and national business groups accuse the union of taking the “nuclear option” and holding families to ransom.

As workers succeeded in blocking goods leaving a key distribution centre, union officials said there were signs there could be a breakthrough in negotiations by Tuesday.

Attempts by Woolworths to reopen its Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre failed after UWU representatives blocked site entry points with cars and protesters. The company blamed the union for creating an unsafe environment for employees and insisted they wanted to work.

A Woolworths Group spokeswoman said customers were facing increasingly empty shelves with shortages of nappies, toilet papers and drinks at Victorian stores

“We call on the union to do the right thing and let us re-open this site,” she said.

“We sincerely apologise for the ongoing inconvenience of grocery shortages as a result of industrial action, and would like to thank our customers for their understanding and for treating our store teams with respect.”

UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said Woolworths had the ability to “end this strike right now, relieving pressure on workers and consumers”.

The union is pushing for Woolworths Group’s supply chain arm, Primary Connect, to scrap its Coaching and Productivity Framework, saying it used engineered standards to discipline or even fire people for not meeting company-stipulated speeds of working.

While workers at the four centres are pursuing “cost-of-living wage increases” ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent annually, Mr Kennedy has signalled they were prepared to consider smaller pay rises provided they were above the inflation rate.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox accused the union of holding families to ransom. “This is a highly cynical and irresponsible dispute orchestrated to cause maximum damage and disruption at the worst possible time,” he said. “The dispute is a sad reminder for Australians of the self-interested industrial chaos unions used to visit on Australians in the 1970s.”

Accusing the union of taking the “nuclear option”, he said the union was being completely unreasonable regarding the processes that were designed to ensure safety, productivity and efficiency in a complex logistics environment involving hundreds of trucks.

“We can’t have unions telling 21st-century businesses they have to operate like 19th-century businesses – and dictating how they organise and manage work. This is a try-on,” he said.

“This dispute, should it roll on, won’t be confined to Woolworths. One major operator prevented from being able to move goods in Australia’s complex logistical chains will have knock-on effects right across the retail sector and beyond.”

Business Council chief executive Bran Black said the UWU demand to remove “productivity measures” from distribution centres while pushing for significant pay increases was a “bad precedent for Australia’s future prosperity and economic growth”.

“Six in every seven jobs are created by private businesses, not unions, and we need to ensure workers, economic growth and our success as a nation are not unfairly held hostage by unions who want conflict,” he said.