Saturday was a remarkable day of action for many workers at Coles and Woolworths nationwide.

Hundreds of employees staged a day of strikes in a historic protest against their employers, with a key union leader having stated that their current wages make it hard for them to even afford their own groceries.

The unparalleled mass industrial action was organised by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU).

According to their Federal Secretary, Josh Cullinan, workers are currently paid a little bit more than the minimum wage and are simply seeking a ‘living wage to deal with the rising cost of living'.

Coles and Woolworths employees staged a nationwide strike to demand better wages and better job security. Credit: Retail and Fast Food Workers Union/Facebook

The protestors have also demanded safer workplaces, greater job security, and for violent and abusive behaviour towards workers to be treated as a crime.

Mr Cullinan claimed: ‘The level of abuse, threats, intimidation and assaults is unprecedented and outrageous. The employers are not lifting a finger to stop it.'

Many of their appeals also included requests for converting casual employment to permanent jobs and more hours in worker contracts.

‘They (staff) just want to be able to have more hours in their contract to rely on,' Mr Cullinan said. 'Mega companies making mega profits should be able to provide that.’

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According to the union, Coles stated that employees who implemented the stop-work ban would stand down: 'Coles pays poverty wages then threatened to take even those meagre wages away from any worker who dares to stand up,’ they said.

'To avoid doubt, workers are not paid for striking and workers at Coles engaging in bans on Friday, 6 October, will not be paid by Coles. Refusing to pay workers while they ban limited work is a choice by Coles in its ruthless exploitation of workers.’

They added: 'Woolworths has not made the same choice and is not currently refusing to pay workers implementing bans.'

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Both retailers have released statements regarding the matter.

A Coles spokesperson assured customers last week: ‘We remain committed to negotiating a fair and balanced agreement for all.’

‘We passed on the Fair Work Commission's annual wage increase to our supermarket team members in July. We dispute the misinformation being pushed by the bargaining representative who is representing less than 0.4 per cent of team members and remain committed to negotiating a fair and balanced agreement for all.’

At the same time, Woolies claimed that only 300 of their 132,000 staff would participate in the walk-off.

‘We have a long history of bargaining in good faith with our team and will continue to do so,’ a Woolworths spokesperson stated.

‘However, we acknowledge and respect the right of team members to take protected industrial action. Only individuals who have appointed RAFFWU as their bargaining representative can participate,’ they added.

‘As a result, we would not expect customers or our stores to be materially impacted,’ the spokesperson assured the customers.

The company has ‘passed’ on a 5.75 per cent wage increase, according to their spokesperson.

The strike happened in the following states:

• Victoria - Melbourne and Gipssland
• New South Wales - Sydney and Broken Hill
• Queensland - Brisbane, Northern Brisbane, Charters Towers and Gladstone
• Western Australia - Perth
• Australian Capital Territory - Canberra
• South Australia - Adelaide

The news that supermarket employees will stage a nationwide strike was shared by the union last week. For more details about their demands, you can read this article here.

You can watch 7News Brisbane’s coverage of the strike here:

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Key Takeaways

• Hundreds of Coles and Woolworths staff nationwide have walked off the job demanding better wages in a first-of-its-kind strike in Australia.
  
• The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) states workers are fighting for higher wages, safer workplaces and secure jobs, with members struggling to afford the groceries they're selling.
  
• Industrial action was also scheduled to take place, sparking allegations of retaliation with claims Coles threatened to stand down every worker implementing the stop-work ban.
  
• Both Coles and Woolworths claim they have passed on the Fair Work Commission's annual wage increase to their workers and dispute the accusations made by the RAFFWU.
  

As of writing, Coles and Woolworths have not released new statements about their employees’ demands.

Have you witnessed the strike in your area, members? Share your experience in the comments below!

 

[mylittletibbies]

I can't see how a strike if such a small number of people is going to have any effect whatsoever.
Of course everyone would love more money, but in the end it will get passed on to the consumers in further rises to food costs, so nobody wins.

 

[KithB]

Supermarkets are like banks make Mega profits but in the case of supermarkets pay their staff a pittance, maybe they should be paying the customers as well for serving themselves.

 

[Feralkat]

RAFFWU is not a registered union. The union that Coles and Woolworths negotiate with is SDA.

 

[freedy50]

Will that didn't make any difference to anyone.

So their main grievance is wanting more money and about violence against them in the stores.

Nowhere have they mentioned they're allegedly losing jobs because of self checkouts. Seems to be people that don't even work in the stores, and don't know anything about their business, that love spreading that false rumour?

 

[magpie1]

Can someone provide details about what they are paid, to give us a clearer picture about their claims etc.

 

[David567]

This will be another excuse for Coles and Woolies to jack their prices again to compensate to extra wages. The only thing these big companies are iterested in are WHO CAN MAKE THE MOST MONEY.

 

[Jan Purcell]

they should also go on strike against those auto belts where the customer has to serve themselves as that is going to put a lot of workers out of work.