Like many retail workers, I worked in a store with no union presence and
a laundry list of issues. We face abusive customers (and management),
low wages, hazardous manual handling practises, and dangerously hot
working conditions in the summer. We were forced to work through COVID
with minimal protection in 2020, and things have not gotten better
since. Workers in my store used to feel that the only way to change
things was to find another job. ---- In mid-2023 we started organising.
We called afterwork meetings in a nearby bar, and what started off as
venting about work, quickly turned into analysing our working conditions
and developing a plan to change things.
We joined the union and worked out how to get our co-workers involved.
Importantly, we didn't just limit our discussions to one store. Our
store is one in a chain, and change will require organising across the
chain. We started a workplace bulletin about the issues we face,
distributed it to nearby stores, and started started talking to contacts
across the company. These conversation showed us that there is a lack of
safety culture across the whole company, and staff are frustrated.
We have a long fight ahead of us, but our rank-and-file organising is
already changing things. We now all refuse to do manual labour when it
gets too hot in store, citing health and safety concerns. Alongside
this, we are collectively negotiating getting Health and Safety Reps
elected and trained in our store. We hope that this will begin to set a
standard across the sector and make it clear that we won't accept unsafe
working conditions anymore.
When we organise, retail workers can win.
From a MACG member organising within the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union
Featured Photo: Retail and Fastfood Workers Union
https://melbacg.au/organising-from-scratch-in-retail/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
a laundry list of issues. We face abusive customers (and management),
low wages, hazardous manual handling practises, and dangerously hot
working conditions in the summer. We were forced to work through COVID
with minimal protection in 2020, and things have not gotten better
since. Workers in my store used to feel that the only way to change
things was to find another job. ---- In mid-2023 we started organising.
We called afterwork meetings in a nearby bar, and what started off as
venting about work, quickly turned into analysing our working conditions
and developing a plan to change things.
We joined the union and worked out how to get our co-workers involved.
Importantly, we didn't just limit our discussions to one store. Our
store is one in a chain, and change will require organising across the
chain. We started a workplace bulletin about the issues we face,
distributed it to nearby stores, and started started talking to contacts
across the company. These conversation showed us that there is a lack of
safety culture across the whole company, and staff are frustrated.
We have a long fight ahead of us, but our rank-and-file organising is
already changing things. We now all refuse to do manual labour when it
gets too hot in store, citing health and safety concerns. Alongside
this, we are collectively negotiating getting Health and Safety Reps
elected and trained in our store. We hope that this will begin to set a
standard across the sector and make it clear that we won't accept unsafe
working conditions anymore.
When we organise, retail workers can win.
From a MACG member organising within the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union
Featured Photo: Retail and Fastfood Workers Union
https://melbacg.au/organising-from-scratch-in-retail/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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