In an industry that desperately needs organisation, WHS organising can be the perfect first step towards building the union. ---- Working in logistics is tough. ---- For the most part, it means hours of moving heavy boxes and wrapping pallets. Forklift duties can be a break from the monotony, but working with forklifts is serious stuff. One wrong move and you can hit someone, drop a pallet, or send tonnes of racking crashing down.
---- A badly organised warehouse is intensely stressful, especially for forkies. After a day of pulling down pallets, your neck kills from looking up.
Then there's the climate. Many warehouses have poor temperature control. In winter, they're freezing. In summer, heat gets trapped until the building becomes a hotbox. Repetitive manual labour in intense heat is a recipe for dehydration and broken bodies.
I've worked through multiple 35°+C days without air conditioning. In one facility, we had tiny portable coolers you had to stand directly in front of. When bosses discovered they drained power from our conveyor belt, the belt took priority.
None of this is reflected in the pay. It's typical to earn just $60k in a full-time position. Casualisation is rife and precarious migrant workers make up a big chunk of the workforce. Bosses take advantage of language barriers and unfamiliarity with rights to protect profits.
Clearly, we need to get organised. But many warehouses, particularly smaller ones, have to start from scratch, without pre-existing union structures.
Health and safety: A gateway to unionism
The good news is that you don't need an existing EBA to start acting like unionists. Health and Safety Committees can give that action some shape.
Take my most recent warehouse. When I started, the two Safety reps were... the manager and assistant manager! Rather than take issues to them, I listened to co-workers:
"The floor is a mess, there's pallets everywhere. How are we supposed to move?" "I can't work another winter here. Why did they have to take away our desk heaters?" "I can't wrap another pallet in this heat."
Had they considered the Health and Safety Committee? Well, we didn't really have one.
I encouraged co-workers to consider joining and took the issue to our regular morning meeting. When pressed, HR conceded that the existing 'committee' wasn't legitimate. They requested volunteers, and a group of us were ready.
Winning control
At the first meeting, there was an even split on the committee between workers and managers. Luckily, the assistant manager soon resigned. The company had fired one of our pick-packers, and the team's angry response rattled him. I refused anything beyond core duties in protest, and was backed by co-workers. Understaffed, and with the assistant manager gone, the floor manager was suddenly a bit busy for WHS meetings.
From there, I insisted the committee be worker-led. By the third meeting, the bosses and HR were gone, and I was elected Chair. We established democratic norms. Any staff member could attend, raise motions, and vote. Obviously, I had led the effort, but collective control and getting volunteers for other roles gave members ownership. It was our project, not mine.
Our first demand was extra paid breaks during extreme heat and heating for winter. I prepared a report on employer WHS obligations and recommended health standards. But rather than simply move a proposal, I invited debate: what were we willing to sign our names to?
We settled on a sliding scale of paid breaks as temperatures reached 30+°C, a new heating system, and cool refreshments in the break room. HR stonewalled. We harassed management for two months. In a company-wide Zoom meeting, committee members made clear to management how serious we were.
Finally, we got a new policy. We could take extra paid breaks during extreme weather, and the fridge was stocked with icy poles and drinks. The heating system was rejected as too expensive, but personal desk heaters were allowed again. No specific temperatures or time limits were included. As with any workplace policy, we had to be strong enough to enforce what we wanted out of it.
Building confidence
The WHS committee was a step towards building confidence and solidarity.
The first test of that solidarity came when a co-worker was threatened with discipline for occasionally being five minutes late (something another worker had already been driven out for).
This time, the whole team stood together. I attended disciplinary meetings as a support person. When I made the union pitch, my co-worker didn't need convincing. He liked my attitude and signed up. When the disciplinary attempts failed, everyone's fear of punishment for lateness disappeared. It hasn't been an issue since.
Soon after, management announced one of the best perks of the job was ending. The company was cutting 16 rostered half-days during summer - essentially eight days of paid leave.
Some were initially apathetic ("it was good while it lasted"). But after we started talking, we decided to respond collectively. Before our daily meeting, we agreed to oppose it. The floor manager was surprised at the pushback, and said he would see what he could do.
When nothing happened the next day, we had another tense meeting. We decided to jointly draft an email to HR, saying the whole team opposed the change. Suddenly, the boss nervously presented us with a schedule for our half-days. We'd won back our RDOs! Funnily enough, the policy hadn't actually been reversed. Our manager was secretly breaking the rules to keep us satisfied.
It was empowering to force a change, but our victory wasn't enshrined in writing. We were later told this was a one-off and wouldn't happen again. That's the risk with informalism. Would we be able to mobilise and oppose the change next time?
Without us, nothing moves
Informal action and WHS structures offer opportunities, but we can't stop there. They should be steps towards union power. Had our call for a heating system been backed by industrial action, we could have won. And with an EBA, the heat policy and rostered half-days would be set in stone.
The truth is that we are less replaceable than people imagine. Warehouse inventory systems and processes take time to learn. And we're central to capitalism functioning. Pick-packers, forklift drivers, and logistics administrators are the reason anything in this country moves. Without us, machinery, equipment, and the latest thing you ordered online would sit collecting dust.
That gives us enormous potential power. If warehouse workers were organised industry-wide, we could bring the entire economy to a halt.
That will only happen one step at a time. So if you're in a non-union warehouse, and someone complains about the heat or lack of floor-space, ask what they think should be done. Are they willing to join the WHS Committee? And if the bosses won't budge, what then? Will they just give up?
Or are they willing to fight?
https://ancomfed.org/2026/10/warehouse-blues/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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