Update 6 December:
After over two weeks of the indefinite strike, Woolworths has secured a ban on picketing at the striking distribution centres after a Fair Work Commission hearing on Friday. The company has been attempting to reopen its Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre in Dandenong this week, but picketing by workers and community supporters has stopped them.
Community supporters are continuing to gather at the distribution centre at 2 Portlink Drive, Dandenong South, in Melbourne.
More than 1500 members of the United Workers Union have been on indefinite strike at four Woolworths distribution sites in NSW and Victoria since 21 November. One Woolworths site in Queensland has also taken a 24-hour strike.
Workers are fighting to scrap the punitive speed-up “Framework” system, a computerised management system, introduced earlier this year, that aims to drive up productivity.
They’re also fighting for a pay rise of 11.5 per cent a year for three years. Woolworths has offered only 11.5 per cent over three and a half years and is refusing to budge on the Framework.
Woolworths claims that 3 per cent is generously above inflation, but grocery prices at Woolworths and Coles are up 18 per cent in the last three years. And Woolworths made $1.7 billion net profit in 2023.
Woolworths’ offer is a real wage cut. While the official inflation rate is at 2.8 per cent, this doesn’t fully account for groceries, electricity, and petrol prices—let alone rent and interest rate hikes affecting mortgages.
One worker at the Erskine Park warehouse in Sydney told Solidarity, “Last year’s pay rise was only 0.5 per cent, and how much money did Woolworths make?”
The new “Framework” management system is just as big an issue for workers at Erskine Park.
One worker told Solidarity, “The main reason we’re sitting out here is because Woolworths says we have to reach 100 per cent target every time. And they can change the numbers, so it’s almost impossible to achieve. It used to be a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.”
Maximise profits
According to a report from the United Workers Union, the Framework “utilises engineered standards to enforce a universal and highly standardised measurement of worker movement and speed”.
The system attempts to raise picking and packing speed by making workers process a target number of items in a given time. The number is determined by a computer programmed to maximise profits for the bosses and shareholders.
Another worker said the number of pallets they make the workers process is “right about double what they are now. For 300 cartons they used to give us roughly an hour and 50 minutes. Now it’s roughly an hour. And they haven’t allocated any time for congestion.”
As the UWU report states, “Should a worker fail to meet the designated speed of work at 100 per cent capacity of every measured minute of their shift, they are placed on a twelve week ‘coaching’ program referred to as the Glidepath.”
Increasing the tempo of work increases the chance of workers being injured or even killed.
One worker told Solidarity, “We’ve had broken ankles, shoulder injuries, people running into each other. There was an incident at Minchinbury, someone got killed there. He went into a spot he shouldn’t have and ended up with a lot of pallets on top of him.
“This place hasn’t had any fatalities. A lot of workers here refuse to ignore the safety parameters even when managers tell you to. Managers have asked people to jump on a forklift to turn off a sprinkler and then become very threatening when the worker says ‘that’s not a good idea’.”
But casuals are especially vulnerable and insecure and will risk injuries to meet target. A worker told Solidarity, “You get casuals that are pushed and pushed. It means you’ve got people trying to shoot past you and not following the safety protocols to try and up their performance so they don’t get harassed by management. People get hit by machinery; they get twisted ankles, and other things.
“A lot of young casuals only became permanent in the last six months. They were running around like mad to try and get the permanent job. Now they can’t even reach target.”
The Framework obviously means a lot to Woolies’ profits; Woolworths management told the union negotiating team that everything except the Framework is negotiable.
Frozen food
Workers are also on strike at Lineage, a separate company with a major contract with Woolworths, supplying chilled and frozen food to about 280 Woolworths stores across Victoria.
One of the workers there told Solidarity, “Things have got worse since I started here. They brought in all these KPIs which are quite unsustainable.
“They’re supposed to be all about safety first but when they have toolbox meetings it’s always about targets.
“Our pay claim is for parity with other cold storage workplaces. Because they were losing workers they gave us a market allowance—we want that consolidated into our agreement.”
Another worker added, “There’s a huge screen in the shed with every worker’s name on it. You get judged on your work with a red, amber or green marker. If you’ve got all reds, you get called into the office.
“Now they’ve brought in blue, which is even harder to get than green. We call it chasing the rainbow.”
Woolworths says they have “extensive contingency plans in place” to keep supply disruptions to a minimum, including “significantly increasing stock levels in stores serviced by these (distribution centres), and utilising the other 20 (distribution centres).” The NSW Minchinbury distribution centre is still working.
Solidarity was told, “Woolworths has planned for this. We had been doing work to move stock out of here so they could move it into stores.”
The pickets are an inspiration to workers everywhere fighting back against a system which squeezes us for more profit. In NSW, nurses are fighting for a 15 per cent pay increase this year. Rail workers are fighting for 32 per cent over four years.
Coordinated action across the distribution centres can beat Woolworths, win a real pay rise and scrap the Framework.
By Jayden Awarau
