Coles’ approach stands in stark contrast to its rival Woolworths, which recently set aside $50 million to help transition its employees.
Workers at Smeaton Grange recently narrowly voted against a Coles agreement offer for the sixth time. This was despite the company putting forward a $1000 sign-on payment as an enticement for support.
United Workers Union members (the main union covering Coles workers) are urgently calling on the union to activate a strike fund to help them and their families survive against Coles’ blatant attempt to starve them out.
One Smeaton Grange warehouse worker told a rally against gas in Sydney on February 5: “Giant corporations like HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup and National Nominees, which own Coles, are the same mob which own the Big Four [banks]. They also have money entrenched in the gas industry.
Coles’ approach stands in stark contrast to its rival Woolworths, which recently set aside $50 million to help transition its employees.
Workers at Smeaton Grange recently narrowly voted against a Coles agreement offer for the sixth time. This was despite the company putting forward a $1000 sign-on payment as an enticement for support.
United Workers Union members (the main union covering Coles workers) are urgently calling on the union to activate a strike fund to help them and their families survive against Coles’ blatant attempt to starve them out.
One Smeaton Grange warehouse worker told a rally against gas in Sydney on February 5: “Giant corporations like HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup and National Nominees, which own Coles, are the same mob which own the Big Four [banks]. They also have money entrenched in the gas industry.
Under immense pressure from a greedy employer, 350 workers have returned to work after being locked out of the Coles Smeaton Grange warehouse in Western Sydney for 12 weeks. Jim McIlroy reports.
If the ballot is successful, Coles will ask the Fair Work Commission to approve its non-union agreement.
Coles is currently building a new automated warehouse but, so far, has refused to give skilled and long-serving warehouse workers in Smeaton Grange an opportunity to be redeployed to it.
Some of the 350 workers have worked for Coles for more than 30 years.
They are seeking better redundancy packages, which include an automation settlement, the right to transfer to the new Coles warehouse and job security.
The rank-and-file Concerned Workers Smeaton Grange group is calling on union members to vote “no” to the non-union agreement.