Woolworths Walkout: Thousands Of Supermarket Workers Set To Strike At Midday Tomorrow

Thousands of Woolworths workers will walk off the job on Tuesday between midday and 2pm in supermarkets across Aotearoa.

"Underpaid, understaffed and undervalued" Woolworths supermarket workers have voted to stage their first ever national withdrawal of labour, with the overwhelming majority support of 96% FIRST Union members responding to a weekend strike ballot.

A central rally of more than 20 groups of Auckland Woolworths stores’ workers will take place outside the Ponsonby store in Auckland, while thousands more from 190 supermarkets around the country will walk out to protest the company’s resistance to a living wage, safe staffing levels, and incentives to fill unpopular night and weekend shifts.

WHEN:

Tuesday, 10th September, 12:00-2:00 PM

WHERE:

• Central rally - Auckland - outside Woolworths Ponsonby store, 4 Williamson Avenue, Grey Lynn, Auckland - FIRST Union members from 22 Auckland Woolworths stores will be participating in this central rally.
• More than 40 other rallies will be taking place across the country in the following regions: Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Central, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

WHY:

Rudd Hughes, FIRST Union National Secretary for Retail and Finance, said that despite frustration with pay talks, Woolworths workers were excited and enthusiastic about taking part in the brand’s first ever supermarket walkout, and union members had voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action with a united voice.

"We’ve negotiated for over 13 days with Woolworths now and sought a fair deal for workers but we’re still miles apart from the company on the most basic issues of all - pay, safety and staffing," said Mr Hughes.

"Woolworths have offered minimal wage increases below the rising household cost of living, sought reductions to workers’ existing employment conditions, and proposed pay rates that are falling behind their competitors."

"They are one half of a duopoly that dominates our domestic food market and has churned out more than $1bn in dividends to Woolworths shareholders in the last 5 years. A lack of money is not the issue here - it’s a lack of will, and a lack of ambition."

"At the bargaining table, they spin a kind of Oliver Twist yarn when the more appropriate Dickensian would be Scrooge. They cannot expect to make insane, record-breaking profits every year, especially while retrofitting and rebranding more than 70 of 185 stores during their $400m name change."

"Raising safe staffing standards with them seems like an inconvenience rather than an opportunity to deter rising levels of abuse and theft by customers. They’re trying to deal with increasing violence against staff but will not address the number of people working in stores."

"Workers are left feeling that protecting previous profit levels is more important to Woolworths than protecting workers in stores."

"Their solution to systemic understaffing is a nebulous project of ‘multiskilling’ workers rather than increasing the actual number of people working on shop floors during busy hours, nights and weekends. It’s disingenuous."

"My message for Woolworths is - explain yourselves. Come out publicly and justify why you don’t think your workers deserve a living wage that enables them to thrive rather than barely survive."

"Explain to your customers why you don’t think your workers deserve safe staffing levels in stores that protect their wellbeing and reduce the stress of over-work."

"I’m proud of our members’ solidarity and we’re excited to be standing together as part of the first Woolworths Walkout."

Background information

• FIRST Union represents approximately 10,000 Woolworths retail supermarket workers in 190 stores around New Zealand, and many more in distribution centres and customer support jobs (who are not part of this strike action).
• More than 96% of Woolworths FIRST Union members who completed a strike ballot voted in favour of a withdrawal of labour.
• The action follows a successful sticker and ‘receipt’-style flyer strike action in August 2024 aimed at building public and customer support for Woolworths workers to receive a living wage, safe staffing levels and penalty rates for overtime and weekend work.
• Woolworths workers remain on media and social media strikes (refusing to adhere to restrictions on their public communications) and spokespeople from the bargaining team will be available to speak with media at the Auckland strike action.
• FIRST Union's June 2024 survey of supermarket workers showed that 90.8 percent of respondents said their stores were understaffed, either "sometimes" (36.2 percent) "regularly" (30 percent) or "continuously" (24.7 percent). 39 percent of workers identified understaffing as the "single most important workplace issue for supermarket workers"; the most popular response to this question.
• Ross Lampert, FIRST Union National organiser for retail food, has previously debunked Woolworths’ misleading public claims regarding pay offers made during current negotiations in an email to union members.

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