Four hundred warehouse workers at a Coles distribution centre run by Linfox in Truganina, in Melbourne’s west, stopped work for 24 hours on Friday 17 January. These workers want a site-specific deal to address unsafe working conditions, low pay, lack of job security and bullying by management. As it stands, they are bound to a national Linfox agreement that does not address their concerns. 

Two unions represent workers at the site: the National Union of Workers (NUW) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU). The majority are with the NUW, which represents most warehouse workers in the state. The company and the TWU, which also covers Linfox’s truck drivers, want to maintain the status quo and have so far blocked a separate agreement.

NUW delegate Frank Pisano spoke to Red Flag on the picket about conditions inside the warehouse. “You’re not allowed to talk to anyone”, he explained. “They basically want you to be a machine”, he said as he described what it’s like wearing a headset which, through a computer-generated voice, issues instructions all shift. 

“There’s also no air conditioning in the warehouse, so on hot days it will reach over 50 degrees in there. Worse still, the northern winds blow right through the place, turning it into basically a pressure cooker.”

After ensuring that trucks didn’t get into the warehouse in the morning, the workers at the picket took their fight into the community. Visiting Coles outlets at Werribee Plaza, Point Cook and Altona, they encouraged shoppers to boycott Coles for the day in solidarity with their struggle.

Mary, a teacher from Point Cook, used the opportunity to explain to her young daughter why the workers were striking and why they should be supported. “I’m going to take this story back to my students”, she said.

When the strikers returned to work, it’s reported that management retaliated with intimidating tactics. Work rates were closely scrutinised and individual workers singled out for unfavourable treatment. Four workers who were deemed to be under-performing were moved from their role in dispatch to the more physically intensive job of picking.

But with Friday’s slogan of “enough is enough” still on their minds, NUW members walked off the job and assembled in the lunch room. They refused to go back until their union was on site. Production stopped for two hours, management eventually agreeing to an ongoing review of the grievances raised by workers. Importantly, the four victimised workers were returned to dispatch.

While the workers at the Truganina distribution centre have come through this dispute without the improved pay and conditions they were after, they have sent a strong message to management and started to establish a new culture on site.

“Workers need a union that will stand up and fight for them”, union delegate Mel Bailey explained at the picket. “Even if we lose this battle – and we’re probably not going to win a site-specific agreement just yet – we’re not going to stop trying to get this whole place unionised with the NUW, so when the next bargaining agreement is up in four years, we’ll be in an unstoppable position … The next time there is a strike, we want all the workers on side.”