The Secretary,
National Union of Worker
Email // | |
Call // | 1300 275 689 |
National // | 833 Bourke St, Docklands VIC 3008 |
Dear Sir,
Our group which is known as RRR SDA GROUP, make this approach to your organization with an enquiry as to whether your union coverage extends to people in retail. The members within our group work for all the major retailers in Victoria but our main concentration is in both Coles Supermarkets and Woolworths.
We read with interest your recent flyer “Woolies are Bullies” which indicates your union’s preparedness to stand up for members in maintaining their conditions.
Our Coles members new EBA is currently being negotiated. We, the workforce, have not been notified as to whom is negotiating on our behalf or what the Union is seeking but we are fearful that at the end of negotiations we will be worst off.
Our Myer members report a similar situation.
Our Woolworths members were done over in our last agreement including some pretty underhanded manipulation of using membership numbers to extend their coverage.
We would ask your executive to consider extending membership to all SDA members. We would not expect your membership in other workplaces to do the job for us but your latest newsletter has shown that you are prepared to take it up to a large employer. There are many thousands of us current SDA members who are up to the task of fighting to defend our rights and conditions but unfortunately we are being held back by a leadership who lacks the ability to represent us in a non compliant fashion.
Our group feels the only hope for our future is to join with another union that will supply the leadership and direction to turn things around.
Our usual form of correspondence is through our blogsite http://ReformSDA.blogspot.com to make public comment or use our email address westajm@gmail.com for direct contact.
In closing we would like to point out that the recent SDA elections held between the current secretary and and unknown, unfunded storeman from Safeway, The Glen Shopping Centre, failed to attract or inspire members to vote. The majority of the membership are that disillusioned they failed to even cast a vote.
Yours sincerely,
RRR SDA GROUP
I am an SDA member and when I was unfairly dismissed for something that i was not at fault for, the SDA got me my job back. I have to give them the credit for that as they potentially saved my family.
ReplyDeleteHey, I think that's great. Do you think they can get us back our penalty rates and potentially save my family?
ReplyDeleteDo you think they could leave the meet workers conditions and represenation alone so as they can look after there family?
ReplyDeleteThere have been numerous enquiries from supermarket butchers in relation to Safeway. We understand that butchers were not allowed to attend information sessions carried out by our SDA organisers or shop reps. We were never told that our pay rise was at the expense of meatworkers. We were led to believe that they willingly gave up their conditions.
ReplyDeleteColes Meat employees have a right to be fearful because unfortunately our current SDA leadership will not stop making deals with employers until every retail employee in Australia comes under SDA jurisdiction.
You are not being singled out, remember what happened to the storemen, the office clerks, the bakers. All their agreements fell by the use of superior numbers on the grocery floor.
The present leadership of the SDA will never relinquish control over these groups, their only hope would be a change in leadership then they could apply for a vote to return to their previous coverage.
What you should be attempting to do is encourage our retail employees to take an interest in removing the current leadership. Unfortunately, the majority are not aware of an attempt to make things right.
If I were a woolies butcher/meatroom staff member, I would join the sda now.
ReplyDeleteWe are unsure what your message is supposed to mean, but we would welcome new members in the SDA and would ask them to take interest in our union and join with us in trying to overthrow the current leadership to restore our conditions.
ReplyDeleteI would apologize to meat people employed by woolies, most people were not aware that the butchers were about to lose their superior conditions. Most members thought that they were voting for a pay rise, we feel it is wrong of the tactics of using us and our far superior numbers to disadvantage you.
You know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI have to say i kinda understand where the SDA is coming from. They can't get all these pay rises, breaks etc without giving something back. Most of us that work for big retail companies have to admit we get paid quite well. I come from a Woolies store myself as a delegate and i have a few friends working in other industries who don't get paid as well as me even though they need qualifications for their jobs. I don't know too much about other agreements but i think in Woolies our conditions are pretty good. In our last agreement we definately got many more benefits then we lost such as increased breaks and significant pay rises for the next 2 or 3 years.
ReplyDeleteCan I just say to (kinda understand SDA delegate) that yes you do sometimes have to give something back before you recieve something in return. I too work for woolies and as a butcher I thank you from the bottom of my heart for voting against me. Yes I'm one of those qualified people that because of you will probably lose most of my penalty rates I fought for, so I will probably earn less than you very soon. Hey maybe we can swap jobs.
ReplyDeleteTo all of the woolies meatroom staff: JOIN THE SDA AND VOTE THE BASTARDS OUT.
ReplyDeleteSDA Delegate: If we follow your line of thinking how did the workers before us achieve sick leave, annual leave,long service leave, five day working week and other numerous conditions. If we follow your suggestion and trade off our last two remaining conditions which is time and a half on Sunday and rate and a quarter between 12midnight and 5am what else do we have to sell?
ReplyDeleteOther unions have managed to keep their conditions and achieve greater payrises. I feel sorry for the younger workers starting out, the loss of penalties had diminished their ability to earn sufficient amount of money to buy homes and support their families.
I am employed by Coles Burwood and have recently been given a newsletter from a friend at another store, titled Coles National Agreement. I know that our store SDA reps have been confiscating material and destroying it. The comments in the newsletter about store reps is though it had been written for ours. They are not the brightest sparks.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who are friends in this store have discussed this newsletter and have reluctantly come to the conclusion that our only hope of regaining decent wages and conditions is to join with another union. The group running the union at the moment has caused so much bad feeling and disappointment amongst the membership that we think that there is no choice if they won't go we will have to.
At last something is happening!!!! The sooner the better.
ReplyDeleteI check the site everyday. Have not seen any further information about the NUW. Are they not interested in us because my workplace is very interested in them or are we stuck with Mr Incompetent and his little sidekick.
ReplyDeleteRRRSDA GROUP is now on facebook:
ReplyDeleteSave us from the SDA