Officeworks distribution centres strike for wage rise
Business has been booming for Officeworks throughout the pandemic. Sales have increased 27 percent in five months, according to the United Workers Union (UWU), which represents workers in the company’s distribution centres. The company’s profits had already increased by 42 percent between 2015 and 2019.
Despite the good times, Officeworks has offered its distribution centre workers wage increases of between 1.5 and 2 percent this year, as well as cuts to overtime penalties, according to the union. The company has refused to give guarantees for job protection, amid growing concern among workers that their jobs will be outsourced.
So workers at distribution centres in North Rocks and Yennora, New South Wales, and Laverton in Victoria went on a 24-hour strike in late August. “They talk about doubling the size of the business in the next two or three years!” Paul Khoudair, a UWU delegate who has worked at the centre for nearly two decades, tells Red Flag. “But they don’t wanna go past 2 percent? Doesn’t sit well with me.”
The distribution centres are used to replenish stock in Officeworks’ retail stores and fill online customer orders across Australia, and workers here have stayed on site during the pandemic. So far, three have tested positive for COVID-19.
Amy* has worked at the North Rocks distribution centre for three years. “Minimum hours everyone’s doing is at least ten, every day. You’re encouraged to stay back for twelve. It’s constant; half an hour lunch break, then you’re back in”, she says.
“With the corona stuff that’s been happening, we’ve really busted our arses these last couple of months”, says John,* who also works at the North Rocks site. “And for them to turn around and say that we don’t deserve the 2 percent, that they wanna impose all of these other things, it’s just like a slap in the face.”
As the sun comes up over the distribution centre strike on Monday, 24 August, workers on the morning shift begin to gather outside the site gates. There hasn’t been a strike at this workplace in almost 20 years, and the company has used dirty tactics to try to intimidate workers, such as hiring 30 casuals as scab labour over the weekend. “On Saturday, they had the new casuals walking around the warehouse”, Amy says. “They were like, ‘If you’re a casual and you wanna go out on strike, these are your replacements’.”
As numbers grow outside the gates, spirits are high. A group gathers by the road to wave placards that read “HONK FOR PAY RISE”, and a holler goes up with each honk from a passing vehicle. One truck driving by belongs to a garbage collector who used to work here. He nearly swerves into the crowd as he jumps out of the truck to cheer on the strikers.
Towards the end of the day, everyone joins a meeting to discuss next steps for the campaign. The UWU officials say that the company has refused to back down from its original offer and will move to a non-union ballot to push it. The union members resolve to campaign vigorously for a “no” vote over the coming days. We learn that workers in the Maritime Union and at Woolworths’ Wyong distribution centre, who recently won a 12 percent pay rise after a two-week strike, will boycott Officeworks until the distribution centre workers win.
“They say inside at work that we’re a family, but I don’t feel that”, says Gloria,* who has worked at the company for four years. “I feel more support now that we’re out here together and we’re standing up for what we deserve. And what we’re doing out here today is stronger than anything else a group could do.”
*Names have been changed
