When I started organising my retail store in 2023, the place was a mess. ---- Incident report after incident report of manual handling injuries. Two measly customer trollies to move heavy stock, one of them being broken. A horrific rat infestation. And only two of us were union members. Everyone at our site had felt the pang of pain in their back or shoulder from moving 20kg of weight, and we were definitely sick of inhaling rat piss. These were conditions management knew about and allowed to continue.
But by early 2024, things were changing. We started inviting more co-workers to union meetings to discuss their issues. People were fed up with the bosses. They were angry and ready to do something about it. Union density jumped to 83%, and we decided the first step would be electing Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs).
The bosses push back
The negotiation meeting with management was hostile. They flew in the General Manager from three states away and the head of HR scoffed at us over Zoom. I had never seen any of those head honchos before that meeting, despite having worked there for just shy of a decade. They were clearly anxious in the face of unionisation and wanted it quashed fast.
We were accused of 'coercing' members to join the union. Yet my coworkers remained staunch, even the less confrontational ones. They had all experienced what we were fighting against. And now we could put faces to the names. These were the people dismissing our emails about unsafe and disgusting conditions.
We watched management lie to our faces when they insisted that they do follow up on incident reports and maintenance requests in a timely manner. But we knew that we were the ones cleaning up rat shit and permanently breaking our bodies every day for minimum wage. Meanwhile, management sat there, in their shiny black shoes, claiming their processes were sufficient.
The tide turns
Undismayed, we fought and ultimately won two HSRs in our store. With this new power at our disposal, we demanded appropriate equipment and pest control. We became the first store in the country to get self-levelling trolleystwo of them. Perishables were relocated to deal with the rat problem. Within a few months, we had completely fixed the infestation, and since getting the trolleys, we've only had one manual handling injury.
Unionisation didn't dissipate the moment we got a few concessions, either. In 2025, a particularly egregious domestic violence advertisement started playing in stores, affecting staff and customers. But now we were organised. Our team was confident enough to shut it down within hours of it going live. We weren't subservient, complacent retail workers anymore. We were militant unionists.
The bottom line
We organise in retail because wherever bosses are able to cut costs to turn a profit, they will do so, even if it means putting employees in harm's way.
But most importantly, we organise because it's these little wins that change both ourselves and our co-workers. When ordinary workers fight to improve their labour conditions, we see firsthand that things don't have to stay the way they are. We can change the world.
We build militants by struggling collectively against the oppression we experience at work. It's this struggle that allows ordinary people to feel solidarity and to understand how the capitalist system exploits the working class. My coworkers who resisted alongside me no longer trust HR or management; they are now confident enough to fix things themselves through collective action. Some of my team members attended the Anarchist Political School, or went on to join trade unions in their next industry. Collective struggle is the best way to bring our co-workers into the struggle for revolution.
So, if you think unionising in a high-turnover and precarious industry is too hard, think again. We started with just two union members, including myself, in a reluctant and fragmented workplace, and ended with big wins and most coworkers in the union.
Alone, we're powerless, but united, revolutionary change is possible. So, get organising!
https://ancomfed.org/2026/04/why-do-anarchists-focus-on-workplace-organising/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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