Supermarket seeks Fair Work orders to clear Melbourne picket line

The Fair Work Commission is being asked to intervene in strike action affecting supermarket giant Woolworths.

Transcript

00:00Woolworths distribution workers, including people behind me, have now been striking for

00:06almost two weeks.

00:09The strikes have been impacting distribution centres, including this one in Melbourne's

00:13South East.

00:15It's meant that things like nappies, toilet paper, frozen goods haven't been able to get

00:21into some of the supermarket giant's stores.

00:24The supermarket has just told the ASX that this has meant it's lost out on $50 million

00:30in sales as it's entering the busy Christmas period.

00:34Now these strikes have also meant that workers have been forgoing pay for now almost two

00:39weeks, losing out on around $1,000 a week after tax.

00:44The union has said this afternoon that it has been handing the cap around to help out

00:48with some of the workers' rent or if they need food.

00:52The union has also said that it maintains that these workers deserve better pay and

00:57better conditions inside the Woolworths distribution centres.

01:02I would say 100% of workers out on strike want to return to work, but they want to return

01:08to work when they have an agreement on fair and just terms.

01:11The workers in making this decision to go out on strike, they don't make it easily.

01:15There's over 1,500 workers, 1,500 families who also need to put food on the table.

01:20They shop in Woolworths as well.

01:23They all want to get back to work.

01:24We want the company to sit down and fix this.

01:27Workers can fix this today with their workers and we can have all these sheds operating

01:32again.

01:33The situation has now become so onerous for Woolworths that it has lodged an application

01:38with the Fair Work Commission to try and get some workers back into these centres.

01:44The supermarket giant claims that these picket lines behind me have made it intimidating

01:49for workers who want to come to work.

01:52The union says that's not correct and they wouldn't stand in the way of any workers if

01:56they did want to get into these centres.

01:58It says that around 85% of the workers inside this centre, for instance, are with the union

02:04and democratically they've decided that they won't go to work and they're prepared to keep

02:09striking.