ALERT #5, 4-9-26: This week’s roundup

Alert: This Week’s Roundup

Kia ora koutou,

After 2 more days at the bargaining table (making it 8 days of negotiations so far), we have an offer from the company that is a slight improvement on their previous position. The company are offering a 2-year deal with a 3.5% pay increase for the first year and a 2.8% pay increase for the second year. While we're happy to see progress, we still have a number of issues to work through and resolve. 

We're lined up for 2 further days of bargaining towards the end of this month and are hopeful of reaching a position where we can bring back an offer for our members to vote on.

A big shout out to the union's delegates on the bargaining team who have worked tirelessly and have been really engaged in the process, contributing to what has been, at times, a robust discussion.

We'll provide our next update as we head back to the negotiating table at the end of the month.

In the meantime, we are also negotiating two other Woolworths Collective Agreements at the same time. We were dismayed this week to hear Woolworths' proposal to 'offshore' around 130 jobs in the Customer Care Centre - meaning these jobs could be lost by our members and sent to Australia. Consultation has started on this plan, and we're encouraging everyone to provide your feedback by emailing workplace.relations@woolworths.co.nz - if you decide to do this, please remember to be polite and constructive in your comments.

Finally, we're also negotiating for our Store Management Team (SMT), and will provide another update to those members shortly.

In solidarity,

Rudd Hughes and the Woolworths bargaining team

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