Will the Woolworths strike end before Christmas?

With the Christmas shelves empty and Woolworths’ pockets full, could the court of public opinion sway negotiations in the workers’ favour?

“An interesting piece in time” is how founder and managing industrial relations consultant Troy Gread described the current situation playing out between supermarket giant Woolworths and the United Workers Union (UWU), who have now been on strike for 15 days straight.

After months of disclosed negotiations between the supermarket and the union, which represents around 1,500 of Woolworths’ warehouse staff, the workers spread across four distributions collectively walked off the job, striking for improved working conditions, safety, pay, and equity.

Since that day, negotiations have continued, with neither side willing to budge. However, The federal government banged the two parties’ heads together and called on them to find a resolution as customer anger continues to rise.

In an attempt to conclude the strikes, Woollies took an alternative route, filing an application to the Fair Work Commission (FWC), alleging a breach of the good faith bargaining requirements.

Woollies’ FWC application

HR Leader reached out to Paul O’Halloran, partner and head of office at Dentons, inquiring about the legitimacy of the application and whether the supermarket giant could pull the wool over the union’s eyes, getting the strikes shut down.

“Woolworths has applied for bargaining orders under section 229 of the Fair Work Act 2009 alleging a breach of the good faith bargaining requirements. According to Woolworth’s ASX release from 3 December 2024, the application comes after the union failed to give assurances of safe passage for workers who wish to return to work,” said O’Halloran.

“A determination of whether a party failed to act in good faith requires an objective assessment of the actions of the bargaining representatives. Much of the evidence on these factors won’t be in the public domain, so it’s hard to know whether bad faith bargaining has occurred.”

O’Halloran pointed to a case that he experienced under a similar situation, which did, however, take some time to unfold.

“Another cause of action open to Woolworths might be to seek injunctions and damages in the Supreme Court of Victoria for interference by the union with contractual relations and the common law tort of conspiracy,” said O’Halloran.

“Ten years ago, a client I was acting for at the time, Boral, brought similar orders in the Supreme Court against the CFMEU when blockades were instigated by CFMEU officials on construction sites where Boral was pouring concrete.

“Injunctions were made by the Supreme Court, although, unfortunately, these were breached by the union, and ultimately, the matter was heard in the High Court, with Boral winning on all grounds, but only after two years of litigation!”

‘Touch one, touch all’

Despite this alternative route, Woolworths seeking assistance from the FWC has only galvanised the UWU to stand firm after receiving staunch support from building unions, including the infamous Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) and Electrical Trades Union (ETU), a part of Building Industry Group (BIG) unions.

In a statement on a CFMEU social media platform, BIG said: “The Building Industry Group of Unions (BIG), representing more than 80,000 Victorian blue-collar workers, resolved to support the members of the United Workers Union taking industrial action at Woolworths distribution centres.”

“The BIG Unions support for the UWU’s distribution centre members is unconditional … combined unions will support the dispute industrially, politically, and financially. Should Woolworths try to break the picket line … we will be there in large numbers at a moment’s notice.”

Gread explained that these union groups aligning themselves with each other is somewhat of an unprecedented move.

“You wouldn’t traditionally see those unions working with the UWU, for example, but the unions have fallen out of bed with the Labor government. The reality is that any intervention from the government will be limited because it really needs to align with their own broader approach to the IR reforms that they’ve implemented themselves,” said Gread.

“Realistically, the results of this action, as well as a lot of others over the last few months, is on the back of these legislative reforms.”

O’Halloran argued that this instance, and others like it over the past few months, are perfect examples of why Australia’s industrial relation laws must be amended.

“Our industrial relations laws need to be changed to prevent highly orchestrated and self-interested disruption by unions, which impact supply chains and critical supply of food and other essentials to consumers,” said O’Halloran.

“Union membership in the private sector is at 8 per cent, yet this dispute has left supermarket [shelves] bare and impacted hundreds of thousands of consumers. Most Australians will not think this is a fair level of disruption. This squarely puts industrial relations reform on the agenda for the next federal election.”

People power

Taking a step back, this industrial action carried out by the UWU only adds to the long string of actions that we’ve seen occur throughout the year. The Sydney Trains threats of a four-day shutdown only occurred a few weeks ago, paired with the large CFMEU demonstrations earlier in the year – unions have been on a roll in 2024.

“I think what we’re seeing is a bit of a union movement, but even more broadly speaking, a bit of people power [movement] off the back of some media blow-up in relation to these big corporations like Woolworths and Coles.

“The court of public opinion is certainly playing out and influencing what people want but more so what these employees want as far as wages go. When they read about allegations of price gouging … it can sway the court of public opinion … it’s an interesting piece in time, that’s for sure,” said Gread.

Gread spoke on the timing of the industrial action, describing it as a textbook “pull of the lever” by the UWU, as consumers leading up to Christmas are more likely to become frustrated with Woolworths – especially considering it is still under a cloud of price gouging allegations.

“If you’re a union, you go after the employer for maximum impact at the worst possible time. That’s normal practice. I’m under no illusion that Woolworths would have been expecting that, too,” said Gread.

“Coming into Christmas, now there’s a perception in the general. [However], if they crumble now, then all the work that they’ve done up until this point in time is a waste. There [are] only three ways this is going to end: the unions cease industrial action, the commission steps in, or Woolworths sharpen [its] pencil. I don’t see any of those three options happening before Christmas.”

O’Halloran believes the public pressure will be too much for the supermarket giant to withstand as Christmas grows nearer.

“It’s consumers who will feel the real impact. I think it’s unlikely the action will continue past Christmas because Woolworths will continue to face escalating backlash from consumers due to empty shelves leading into the holiday period. This will lead to brand damage and loss of profits to consumers,” he said.

The situation for the workers involved in the industrial action, however, isn’t much better, as they are operating with a lack of income heading into the holiday period.

“These employees won’t be getting paid through industrial action, which means there’s probably more pressure, if anything, on them because they’re not making any money leading into Christmas,” said Gread.

O’Halloran said: “The action commenced by the union for indefinite strike action is now extending into its 15th day. Workers participating in the strike action are not being paid, which will hit the hip pocket of workers at a critical time.”

As a year of volatile industrial relations draws to a close, the climax of 2024 could be the tipping point moving forward, depending on how these negotiations are solved. As Gread articulated, it’s a real “rubbers hitting the road” moment, yet with neither side giving an inch, at this rate, we may not see this conclusion until 2025.