“Nothing. That’s what we’re getting, nothing. They’ve basically offered exactly the same thing as they did before we went on strike. They’ve actually gone backwards on their original offer of a 3.3 percent pay rise … We took a vote this morning and it was unanimous: we’re staying out!”

There’s a lot of cheering going on at Woolworths on Collingwood’s Smith Street. Thursday lunchtime in late October – long after finals footy has finished – is not usually so lively here. But striking workers from Barnawatha’s “big shed” distribution centre near Wodonga have travelled a long way to spread the word about their treatment at the hands of Australia’s largest supermarket chain.

While the company’s executives have received pay increases of up to 68 percent in the last financial year, Barnawatha employees are being shortchanged.

Gareth Owen has been working at the shed for nearly eight years. At 65, he’s about to retire but hopes their stand and victory will flow through to workers in country areas. He told Red Flag, “We’re trying to get wage justice. There’s a gap between regional and city members. It’s $203 a week … For the younger people that are say going to stay there for 20 or 30 years, that’s their retirement, that’s what goes into their super.”

The company says the wage differential is justified because it is cheaper to live in the country. Meg Stewart has worked at Barnawatha for almost eight years. She sees things differently. “What a crock! Our council rates have just gone up by about 17 percent. We’ve got less money than ever. Our wages just aren’t keeping up. While everything else is going up, up, up, they’re not offering us anything.”

The company attempted to split the workforce by offering a better deal to those already employed if they would agree that new starters would be paid less. That didn’t wash with anyone, says Meg. “There’s no way we’re going to sell out new workers. We’re not going to allow them to fund our pay rise by taking $3 an hour off those new workers for the same work. We don’t even know them, but we refused. We’ve got more integrity than Woolworths has. We’ll stick together and stand firm in our beliefs.”

Their integrity – and solid strike action – paid off on 1 November. A mass meeting endorsed a new offer that includes a wage increase of 8.3 percent over two years, increased break times and increased shift loadings. While it doesn’t equalise wage rates between city and country workers, it begins to reduce the difference.