02/12/2020
COMRADES, COLES HAS STOLEN CHRISTMAS
That most hated of all enemies, that perfidious oppressor of all workers, the robber-barons pulling the strings of the southern government, the supermarket duopoly has returned. While earlier this year it was the succubus of Woolworths, now the incubus of Coles has reared its ugly head in the all-reaching anti-worker campaign ongoing in the southern provinces. Coles continues full steam in its campaign to automate jobs and strip back working conditions, with the latest target being the noble workers at Coles’ Smeaton Grange distribution centre. The facility is due to be shut in 2023 and the 500 workers are now cast into the abyss of uncertainty and worry.
The workers at Smeaton Grange have worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure stores were stocked and people had food and in return for their work they make reasonable demands of Coles: That workers have the right to transfer to this new automated facility, that workers receive fair redundancies, and that casuals have some security in the transition. How have the megalomaniac overlords at Coles responded to these completely reasonable demands of these workers? They have cruelly locked out the workers for THREE MONTHS, denying them their wages and callously using the food supply of the southern city of ‘Sydney’ as a bargaining chip to try and beat the workers into submission. While this would be a cruel and unusual punishment at the best of times, the fact that this is occurring over the commonly celebrated end-of-year holiday known as ‘Christmas’ is so astoundingly heartless and out of touch that it beggars belief that Coles would even have considered it, but we must commit this to memory as yet another example of the true nature of the supermarket duopoly. Coles may as well have just snatched the presents straight out of the hands of children on Christmas morning.
This perfidious company has had its profits soar over the past year, its earnings are up 10.7% and its despicable CEO has had his remuneration package increased by 28.9% to more than $7 Million. Like the dragons of legends past, Coles sits atop a hoarded pile of wealth that is so large it threatens to drown them but will not part with even a single coin to give to the workers responsible for its profits.
Comrades in the south, these locked out workers need your support and solidarity. Three months of lockout is three months with no work, three months with no wages, and three months of fighting on the picket line. The United Workers Union representing the workers has set up a fundraiser for the workers affected by this lockout, which you can find a link for below.
Smeaton Grange comrades, the best wishes of the DPRNQ and our glorious General Secretary Katter are with you! You are the proverbial knights who are going to slay the vile beast of Coles and deal a crushing blow to the supermarket duopoly that governs the hellscape of the southern provinces!
https://chuffed.org/project/support-locked-out-coles-workers
*apologies comrades, technical issues on the last post*
Workers at Coles Smeaton Grange are on strike for a fair future after Coles announced they are closing their site and replacing it with an automated warehouse. After workers decided to do a 24 hour strike, Coles has taken the heartless decision to lock them out for three months over Christmas!