“Woolworths said … another union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Association (SDA), had endorsed a pay offer from Woolworths last week.” Well duh. The Shoppies are possibly Australia’s most anti-worker union except the Police Association Here’s a bit more about them 🧵 - ThreadSky

incrediblemelk.bsky.social • 92 days ago

“Woolworths said … another union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Association (SDA), had endorsed a pay offer from Woolworths last week.”

Well duh. The Shoppies are possibly Australia’s most anti-worker union except the Police Association

Here’s a bit more about them 🧵

Comments

clembastow.bsky.social•92 days ago

Now now, Mel, the Police Association aren’t a real union

bickiecuppatea.bsky.social•92 days ago

Well, PANSW are very effective at achieving improved conditions for their members!

ablokeimet.bsky.social•92 days ago

Police aren't workers & the organisations they build are gangs, not unions.

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•92 days ago

The SDA are socially conservative Catholics & they’ve long been regarded as a boss-friendly or ‘yellow’ union

They actively collude w big employers like Coles, Woolworths & McDonald’s to make workplace agreements that undermine fair wages & safe conditions, & that strip penalty wages & job security

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•92 days ago

The SDA targets young/inexperienced/casual workers who know vaguely that being “in the union” is good. But they only care for their members as numbers ‘on paper’: as votes within the ALP, where the SDA pursues conservative policies eg the Shoppies were widely blamed for cruelling same-sex marriage

ablokeimet.bsky.social•92 days ago

The SDA officials do a reasonable job of looking after the interests of permanent full-time staff with long service at Coles & Woollies. But these are a small minority of supermarket employees. Most members are young, part-time & casual. They get shafted big time.

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•92 days ago

But when it comes to the stuff a real union should actually do, the Shoppies literally sell out members to bosses. A 2015 Fairfax investigation found that the SDA paid Coles and Woolworths up to $40 million in “commission” to sign up their workers as members

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•92 days ago

To employers, the Shoppies are a convenient figleaf to claim their antiworker pay & conditions are union-endorsed – but a 2015 Coles agreement to which the SDA went 👍🏼 failed the Fair Work Commission’s Better Off Overall Test (BOOT)

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•92 days ago

This case led to the founding of RAFFWU, a left-leaning union for retail & fast food workers, which has since secured better conditions at workplaces including Woolworths, Domino’s and McDonald’s

incrediblemelk.bsky.social•92 days ago

The union repping striking Woolworths warehouse workers now is the United Workers Union which reps over 45 blue-collar industries; in 2019 United Voice & the National Union of Workers merged into UWU. It’s aligned w the Labor Left & has 3 votes on national exec to the SDA’s 4 votes

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