Woolworths customers will face continued shortages of products on shelves as union members continue to picket supply warehouses and say they will do so until a pay deal is reached.
United Workers Union members are blocking all entrances to a suburban Melbourne distribution center after Woolworths announced plans to reopen.
Plans to bring in more staff on Monday never came to fruition, but picketers at the Dandenong South site turned away logistics trucks trying to enter.
The strike has seen Victorian supermarket shelves stripped of all available products, with scenes similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Customers can expect to see empty shelves after the union failed to reach an agreement to end the strike, Woolworths said.
‘The majority of our team at the South Melbourne Regional Distribution Center want to go back to work and get paid again, our customers are facing increasingly empty shelves, another union has backed our deal and we are still at the negotiating table with the UWU. ‘said a Woolworths spokesperson.
“As long as they continue to block access to our site, our customers will continue to face shortages on Victoria shelves.”
One store, on Collingwood’s Smith Street, had most of its toilet paper aisle emptied along with much of its baking and refrigeration sections.
The company and the union returned to the negotiating table on Monday.
Products missing from some Woolworths supermarkets due to ongoing industrial action
The strike is not believed to have yet affected Victorian farmers, whose produce normally arrives in supermarkets closer to Christmas, but items such as nappies, toilet paper and drinks have been affected.
“We are hopeful of making a breakthrough because our workers deserve to be safe at work,” said United Workers Union national secretary Tim Kennedy.
Workers are protesting against “unrealistic performance expectations” that they say lead to frequent injuries, and are demanding better wages as well as an agreement for workers at different sites to receive the same amount.
In late November, Woolworths insisted that all stores were still receiving regular deliveries of stock, but that some were receiving their products less frequently than previously scheduled.
At the time there were no product limits, apart from eggs, which have been rationed for months following bird flu outbreaks in New South Wales and Victoria.
The strike is not believed to have yet affected Victorian farmers, whose produce normally arrives in supermarkets closer to Christmas, but items such as nappies, toilet paper and drinks have been affected.