The disagreement stems from an unusual decision by the Fair Work Commission to postpone until February next year a July 1 annual salary increase provided for in company agreements (EAs) for Woolworths, Big W, BWS and Dan Murphy`s brands. The SDA has a network of hundreds of delegates on site in warehouses and distribution centers. Delegates are there to represent you in the event of a problem and ensure that your safety comes first. They are among 350 workers who were recently subjected to a 14-week lockout of the company that ended in betrayal by the United Union of Workers (UWU). After a long and courageous stance, the workers were finally forced to accept a sale after the UWU refused to grant them strike pay and worked with management to move forward with an agreement ratifying the closure of the facility and the destruction of all or part of the jobs there. Workers at Coles` distribution centre in Smeaton Grange, south-west Sydney, told the World Socialist Web Site that 96 of their colleagues had been laid off since the camp reopened in early March. “Woolworths workers deserve fair wages and conditions, and this new deal certainly offers that,” Dwyer said. When Woolworths management locked out Wyong workers, they planned to use the pandemic, like other employers, to deal a severe blow to vendors and set new operating standards to be imposed on the rest of their workforce. Key elements of the new deal, which guarantees wages and working conditions for the next four years, include: Supermarket and retail giant Woolworths on Thursday ended its indefinite lockout of workers at Wyong distribution centres in New South Wales after negotiating a sales agreement (EA) with the United Workers Union (UWU). By mid-January, the UWU had dropped its damage report and tried to get the company`s deal through.

The union held one vote after another on the deal, the majority of which was rejected. It was only when workers were impoverished by the union`s refusal to pay strike wages and faced the prospect of a months-long lockout that the UWU was able to pass its betrayal. The Fair Work Committee`s approval comes after Woolworths workers voted overwhelmingly (93%) in favour of the new deal. The company agreement imposed by the UWU provided for a maximum of 80 “voluntary” dismissals in the first trial, indicating either that some of the 96 workers were involuntarily dismissed or that more workers were eager to leave. In reality, the agreement, drawn up in closed-door negotiations and adopted at a union meeting on Thursday, is a betrayal and follows previous statements by management that it would not accept “unsustainable wage demands and the elimination of basic performance expectations.” Rival supermarket chain Woolworths plans to open a new automated distribution centre in New South Wales by the end of 2023 and close its warehouses in Yennora, Minchinbury and Mulgrave, which employ around 1,350 people, representing a net loss of at least 750 jobs. This follows the construction of the Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre in 2018, which resulted in the closure of the Broadmeadows hangar and the destruction of more than 600 jobs. SDA National Secretary Gerard Dwyer said the new agreement, which will take effect on Monday, January 14, protects wages, improves penalty rates, guarantees the SDA`s hard-earned terms and ensures that all Woolworths workers receive wage increases. “This new agreement means that woolworths workers across the country will be better off – not only in terms of take-home pay, but also in terms of working conditions.

UWU`s initial demand was an immediate salary increase of 16% for level one employees in the first year of a three-year agreement and 9% for those employed in higher positions, followed by a salary increase of up to 4% per year, depending on their grade for the rest of the agreement. More than 550 workers were locked out after going on strike for 24 hours on July 24 after five months of failed negotiations on a new deal. Smeaton Grange`s 350 permanent employees were locked out on November 19 last year after voting for a one-day strike against the company deal offered by management. From the beginning, the UWU isolated the workers, performed only a handful of stunts, and called for a toothless boycott of Coles supermarkets. The union prevented any action in other distribution centers and did not even inform the workers of some of them that a dispute was ongoing. The Smeaton Grange distribution centre is just one of five Coles warehouses in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland that will be closed by the end of 2023 and replaced by two new automated facilities. Woolworths launched its attack with full confidence that it could rely on the UWU to isolate the conflict and block calls for industrial support from workers at its distribution centres in Sydney to supply supermarkets in Sydney`s Central Coast area and north, which are normally served by Wyong. “The deal also maintains hard-earned SDA conditions such as volunteering during the holidays and a 15-minute tea break,” Dwyer said. Under the new agreement, workers will receive an average increase of 11.2% over three years, or about 3.7% per year, well below the amount needed to achieve equal pay with the company`s distribution centres in Sydney. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the woolworths supermarket chain agreed to increase employees` salaries and subsequently withdrew the lawsuit. On Monday, workers at the woolworths alcohol distribution centre in Melbourne`s west end took matters into their own hands and left work after learning that a worker had tested positive for COVID-19. The site remained open on Saturday, although management was informed of the positive result at least the day before.

Woolworths also rejected any relaxation of the Wyong Centre`s levy rate, the number of items workers must move every hour. A Wyong employee told the WSWS that Wyong`s pick-up rate had risen from 160 seven years earlier to more than 230 boxes per hour. This has been pushed to dangerous and dangerous levels during the pandemic, making social distancing virtually impossible. The sale of the Wyong dispute by the UWU is in line with the response of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and all other unions to the pandemic. From the beginning, unions have worked with federal and state governments and employers to maintain production and profits by lowering working conditions, lowering wage levels, and imposing the costs of the pandemic on their members. The calls to Banducci, who for years have overseen brutal attacks on jobs and working conditions to drive up stock values and fund lucrative executive compensation programs, are worse than a waste of time. In addition to his annual salary of $2.6 million in 2019, Banducci received $5 million in long-term incentives to reduce wages and jobs. “We care a lot about our team and believe that providing these increases early – without lengthy legal proceedings – is exactly the right way to solve the problem and move forward. Coles` redesign is part of a reckless restructuring in the warehousing and logistics industry.

The only way to carry out this offensive is a complete break with the union. New organizations of struggle, including independent rank-and-file committees, must be established in all institutions. .