Christmas strike threat hits Woolworths
The supermarket giant’s food distribution network faces disruption in the lead-up to Christmas, as warehouse workers threaten to escalate industrial action in support of above-inflation pay rises as high as 36 per cent over three years.
The United Workers Union has warned Woolworths’ food distribution network faces disruption in the critical lead-up to Christmas as warehouse workers threaten to escalate industrial action in support of above-inflation pay rises as high as 36 per cent over three years.
Ballots of hundreds of union members at four distribution centres in Victoria and NSW have endorsed strike action, including indefinite stoppages, and workers will hold one-hour stop work meetings on Tuesday to determine their next step.
UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy said indefinite strikes were a “real live option” unless the supermarket giant tabled an improved wages offer.
“If these warehouses take ongoing strike action, it will mean approximately five million boxes of food every week do not get moved. Woolworths and their shareholders need to listen,” Mr Kennedy told The Australian.
Woolworths Group’s supply chain arm, Primary Connect, has contingency plans designed to ensure minimal disruption to food supply, including building up stock in stores and using other distribution centres.
Under the terms of the protected action ballot order, the workers are required to give seven days notice of any industrial action.
According to the union, workers at the four centres – three in Victoria and one in NSW – are pursuing “cost of living wage increases” ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent annually.
Primary Connect said the union claim “on average across the four distribution centres” equated to an immediate wage increase of more than 14 per cent, and pay rises of 11 per cent for each subsequent year.
It said the most common annual earnings for full time employees across the four sites ranged from $85,000 to $95,000, not including shift loadings.
It has offered pay rises of 10 per cent over three years to workers at the Melbourne South Regional distribution centre; 12.1 per cent over four years to Melbourne Liquor centre workers, 7.1 per cent over two years to Wodonga centre workers and 12.05 per cent over three years to workers at the Erskine Park centre in NSW.
Primary Connect says the offers take hourly rates at the sites to approximately 40 to 60 per cent above the Storage Services Award, and above inflation.
“We have already put forward several offers with competitive pay that is above industry standards, above local market rates, and well above the award,” a spokeswoman said.
The company’s offer would result in new hourly base pay rates of $35.94 at Melbourne South Regional; $37.87 at Wodonga; $39.85 at Erskine Park and $42 at Melbourne Liquor. The UWU wants the Melbourne South and Wodonga workers earning $38 an hour in the first year of the new agreement.
Mr Kennedy said current real wages were still lower than wages from a decade ago, and “the cost of living crisis is not just a product of higher prices for living but a product of wage stagnation for many of Australia’s workers for over a decade”.
“This has all occurred during a period of time where big corporations like Woolworths have accrued ever-increasing profits which contributes to the growing social problems of wealth inequality in Australia. Workers at Woolworths need a proportionate wage increase to the deal with the cost pressures they face,” he said.
The UWU wants the workers brought under one national agreement but the company is opposed as it is concerned it would give workers the potential to take simultaneous industrial action that could significantly disrupt the distribution network.
Mr Kennedy said the work of Woolworths employees was “crucial wherever it is performed and should be valued equally across the country”.
“Workers do not want to see an unfair two-tier system with some Woolworths workers paid less than others doing the same work,” he said.
“It’s time Woolworths did the sensible thing, stopped wasting time and money on negotiating more than a dozen individual workplace agreements around the country, and give workers certainty and fairness under a national agreement.”
The union’s third key demand is the scrapping of Primary Connect’s Coaching and Productivity Framework which the union said used engineered standards to discipline or even fire people for not meeting company stipulated speeds of working.
“In this high-risk industry, we need people to go home safely to their families and loved ones at the end of the day. Woolworths must put an end to their so-called “framework” and prioritise workers’ physical and psychological safety above all else,” Mr Kennedy said.
“Workers have said we will strike for these rights. The result from ballots across four Woolworths’ distribution centres is a resounding yes to strike action if an improved offer is not put forward by the company.”
Primary Connect says the framework measures the movement of product rather than tracking employees, with performance assessed on a quarterly basis.
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