Statement of United Workers Union National Secretary Tim Kennedy regarding today’s negotiations in Woolworths warehouse workers strike:
“All workers across Australia deserve to be safe at work.
“Threats of industrial escalation against their own staff should not be part of the tactics Woolworths deploys
against workers as they stand up for their safety.
“United Workers Union members filed more than 2200 individual disputes with the Fair Work Commission to protest the punitive “framework” Woolworths introduced at the start of 2024.
“The framework introduced disciplinary action if warehouse workers fail to achieve a 100 per cent score for every task they completed, across every day.
“Workers are not robots and should not be treated like robots. But this is exactly what Woolworths is seeking to do for thousands of workers across their warehouses.
“United Workers Union continues to negotiate with Woolworths on behalf of our members and we are pleased to see that after 12 days on strike and thousands of protests, the company has shown signs of finally understanding how important this issue is to workers.
“We have seen Woolworths threaten escalating industrial conflict, and the importation of aggressive US-style industrial relations tactics is regrettable.
“But today’s negotiations show Woolworths the way they should be resolving this issue – by talking with and listening to their workers.
“We are hopeful of a breakthrough because our workers deserve to be safe at work.
“Woolworths says it is moving to address supply shortages that are occurring across the network.
“But Woolworths continues to have the ability to end this strike right now, relieving pressure on workers and consumers.
“A safe workplace that treats workers as humans, not robots, and fair pay increases to help workers survive the ever-growing cost of living, is what is needed to end this strike.
“Woolworths have been gouging families at the check out and gouging workers in their pay packet for too long – it’s time they shared the profits around.”