Touch one, touch all: CFMEU picket warning to Woolworths

Building unions, including the CFMEU and ETU, have vowed to send large numbers of construction workers ‘at a moment’s notice’ to support striking Woolies workers.

Woolworths workers on a picket line at the Dandenong South Distribution centre in Melbourne. The centre remains closed as negotiations continue. Picture: David Crosling/NewsWire

Building unions have warned Woolworths against trying to break a union picket line in Melbourne, vowing to send large numbers of construction workers “at a moment’s notice” to support the warehouse employees taking indefinite strike action.

Declaring “touch one, touch all”, the Building Industry Group of Unions representing more than 80,000 Victorian workers resolved to fully support the members of the United Workers Union taking industrial action at Woolworths distribution centres.

“The BIG Unions’ support for the UWU’s distribution centre members is unconditional and the combined unions will campaign and support the dispute industrially, politically and financially until these workers win this dispute,” they said in a joint statement.

“Should Woolworths try to break the picket line, the BIG is putting all our members on ­notice: if the UWU members require support for the picket, we will be there in large numbers at a moment’s notice.

“This is a critical fight, and the BIG unions stand with the UWU members and encourage all ­unions and workers to join the fight as well.”

The BIG unions consist of the CFMEU, the Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the plumbers union.

Negotiations to try to resolve the dispute, which has left Woolworths supermarket shelves bare and caused beer and wine short­ages, continued on Wednesday ahead of a Fair Work Commission hearing on Friday.

Woolworths said the strike had cost the company an estimated $50m in lost food sales.

It has filed an application for Fair Work Commission orders to clear the UWU picket outside a key distribution centre in Melbourne’s Dandenong South.

The company announced the FWC application after failing to reopen the centre on Monday. UWU members have blocked the site entry points with cars and protesters, and the company has blamed the union for creating an unsafe environment for employees.

The company had claimed that a majority of workers at the centre contacted by management over the past weekend had wanted to return to work, a claim strongly denied by the union.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt, who has held talks with Woolworths and the UWU in recent days, said on Wednesday the Albanese government would like to see the dispute resolved as quickly as possible.

“That would be good for the workers involved so that they can get a pay rise,” he said.

“It would obviously be good for Woolworths as well.

“And it would be good for consumers to make sure that they have got a ­certainty of supply,” he said.

In their joint statement, the building unions attacked Woolworths while saying the UWU members worked hard to keep shelves stocked and deserved a cost-of-living wage increase.

“Woolworths are one of Australia’s largest companies, which profited massively from the Covid pandemic, and their price gouging and dodgy specials impact the everyday lives of all Australians and demonstrate a culture of corporate bastardry,” the unions said.

“One thing the Covid pandemic reminded all Australians of is how these workers are critically vital to our supply chains.

It is disgraceful that Woolworths treats its workforce with such contempt, deploying a draconian productivity “framework”, denying wage rises, and attempting to undermine the dispute by using scab labour.”

The company announced the FWC application after failing to reopen its Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre on Monday. Woolworths chief executive Amanda Bardwell said the supermarket giant would not budge in its negotiations.

“We have a really good offer on the table for our team now, we pay 40 per cent above award rate and we’re offering above CPI, these are very good offers for our team, and we’re hopeful that the union, the UWU, will accept those offers,” Ms Bardwell told Nine News on Wednesday.

Ms Bardwell said it had been a “very challenging year, no question” for Woolworths.

“We’re deeply sorry for our customers who, rightly, are very frustrated right now.

“We’re working day and night to be able to find a way through these negotiations.”