‘Can’t even afford the groceries they’re selling’: Coles, Woolies workers’ defiant call in staff strike

Staff at Coles and Woolworths have taken to the streets in protest for better pay. One union leader said that some employees couldn’t afford to buy the groceries sold by their employers.

Retail and Fast Food Workers Union members stopped working for two hours in stores across Australia and New Zealand, including NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.

The first nationwide strike of this kind in Australia impacted Woolworths and Coles stores amid increasing union criticism against the two grocery chains.

Around 1000 RAFFWU employees took part. Federal Secretary Josh Cullinan stated that staff were fighting to secure their jobs for better wages and safer workplaces.

He told Nine News that workers are paid just a few pennies more than minimum wage.

They want to make a living wage in order to cope with the increasing cost of living.

They can’t afford to buy the food they sell.

Mr Cullinan also said he wanted casual workers to get permanent jobs and that action should be taken against violence in shops.

“They (staff), just want to be sure that they can rely on more hours in their contracts,” said Mr Cullinan.

Mega companies that make mega-profits should have the ability to do so.

“We want every time an employee is abused or assaulted to be treated as a crime.

The level of abuse and violence is shocking and unprecedented.

The employers don’t do anything to stop this.

On Friday, there was also a planned industrial action at some stores. This sparked allegations of retaliation.

The RAFFWU claimed that Coles had said it would terminate all workers who implemented a stop-work order.

Coles will not pay workers who strike or are banned on Friday, 6 October.

“Coles’ ruthless treatment of workers is evident in the refusal to pay employees while they restrict work.

Woolworths did not make the same decision and does not refuse to pay employees who implement bans.

Striking employees are ordered to rally in certain locations, including:

A spokesperson for Coles said that there were no problems with the store or customers on Saturday.

The spokesperson stated that “at this stage we believe that less than 20 of the team members listed today took part in the stop-work action.”

“Coles continues providing above-award working conditions under our existing enterprise agreement. We have passed on the 5.75% wage increase per year from the Fair Work Commission to our team members.

“We contest the misinformation being spread by the bargaining rep, which isn’t a registered union and represents only 0.34% our total workforce.”

Woolworths said that only 300 employees out of 132,000 were expected to participate in the walkout.

They said, “We have had a long tradition of good faith bargaining with our team. We will continue to do this.”

“However, We acknowledge and respect the rights of team members to protected industrial actions.

Only individuals who have designated RAFFWU to be their bargaining agent are eligible to participate.

We do not anticipate that our customers or stores will be adversely affected. “

Woolworths also “passed-on” a wage increase of 5.75 percent, according to the spokesperson.