WAREHOUSE workers at Woolworths’ Barnawartha North facility are on strike, aiming to get a better pay deal that brings them in line with their metropolitan counterparts.
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The workers kicked off their indefinite industrial action yesterday with signs hung from the nearby Hume Freeway overpass urging shoppers to boycott the supermarket giant.
VicRoads had the signs removed but that hasn’t deterred the striking workers who argue the inequity in pay rates between them and Melbourne colleagues, who earn $203 per week more for doing the same job.
Woolworths’ Melbourne workers have been offered a $1.04 per hour increase, while those at Barnawartha have been offered an additional 74 cents per hour.
Union representatives said the North East workers’ situation has found sympathy among locals who have told them the same situation exists in other workplaces in the region.
While some believe living costs are lower in regional areas there are no doubt those Border wage earners who might argue some costs are in fact higher and balance out any perceived advantage those in the country might allegedly have.
