Woolworths Walkout A Success But Company Must Stop The Spin And Intimidation

Thousands of Woolworths workers walked out of supermarkets yesterday at midday for two hours and rallied in front of more than forty stores around the country from the far north to Invercargill.

[For a gallery of photographs, please click here]

Rudd Hughes, FIRST Union National Secretary for Retail and Finance, says the strike action was a strategic and focused demonstration of how much a living wage and safer staffing levels means to Woolworths workers, and the response from the public around the country had been supportive and understanding, but he said that many of the company’s responsive comments to media and the public yesterday about bargaining and pay were not true.

Mr Hughes confirmed that some Woolworths workers were served with suspension notices for participating in yesterday’s walkout but dismissed it as a "pointless intimidation tactic" and a "farce".

"It’s bully-boy behaviour during a legal strike action, but it’s also weird and inappropriate given the strike was ending in two hours and the notices were invalid."

"Workers had already suspended themselves - we let the company know that on Monday afternoon. Woolworths did it to intimidate, and it didn’t work."

Mr Hughes said that negotiations with the company would reconvene today (Wednesday), and the union would immediately raise the leaked and factually incorrect bargaining information provided to media and the public by Woolworths yesterday. He urged that private bargaining information provided by Woolworths should not go unscrutinized, and nor should the company’s recent attempts to portray itself as "struggling" in any financial sense.

"Does anyone really think that thousands of people struggling with low wages would be taking to the streets and foregoing two hours’ pay if a ten percent wage rise was on the table?"

"Yes, Woolworths did increase wages substantially when we last negotiated an agreement in 2022, but they do not need a pat on the back for previously having the ambition to pay a living wage."

"Woolworths’ average yearly pay offer to workers is below the current Household cost of living growth, below many of their retail competitors, way below the new living wage , and absolutely below par to a bargaining team made up primarily of their employees."

"They’re halfway through an ambitiously unnecessary $400m rebrand and are trying to cut labour costs for the next two years. They are no longer a market leader on pay and certainly should not talk that talk while threatening striking workers during a legal industrial action."

"Last week’s Annual Grocery Report from the Commerce Commission tells the story pretty well - they’re part of a powerful duopoly worth $25bn with a captured market that they can price gouge due to a lack of government intervention. They do not struggle."

Mr Hughes said the FIRST Union bargaining team wanted fair and productive negotiations with Woolworths and recognition that thousands of workers taking an unpaid two-hour strike action on three days’ notice was a firm indication of how much a living wage and safer staffing levels in stores meant to supermarket workers.

Woolworths workers remain on a social media and media strike (refusal to adhere with restrictions on public communications about their work).

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