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To: Steven Cain, Coles CEO

Coles: End this cruel lock out and respect your long serving essential workers!

Members have now endorsed the new EA with 71% approval. The new agreement will:
- Lock in that all members receive 4 weeks per year of service capped at 80 weeks from 1 July 2021, and not just at "Full Site Closure"; (Members made redundant who are over 45 also retain the additional 1 week per year of service up to 10 weeks (still within the 80 week cap), plus the pay out of all accrued personal leave and other entitlements)
- Secured a minimum number of 50 Voluntary Redundancies, which can go up to 80.
- An 80/20 ratio of permanents to casual, thereby creating many permanent jobs;
- Outplacement Services placed in the EA;
- Ensuring members cannot be disciplined over pick rates;
- Ensuring Coles uses all permanent team members first when applying job rotation or higher duties (including perms on OT), before using labour hire agency workers;
- Ensuring that all members go back work without the threat of any disciplinary action;
- A $1000 sign on bonus each
- An ability to take a redundancy at their own initiative, not the company's.
Thank you for your support and solidarity for these hardworking members!

Workers at Coles Smeaton Grange are on strike for a fair future after Coles announced they are closing their site and replacing it with an automated warehouse. Now workers have taken legal industrial action, Coles has taken the heartless decision to lock them out for three months over Christmas!

These essential warehouse workers at Coles are fighting for their futures and their families. Sign this petition to send a message to Coles that it must look after its long term workforce!

Why is this important?

About 2 years ago, workers at the Coles Smeaton Grange warehouse were told that their workplace would be shut down by 2023 to make room for automation. The news was devastating to workers & their families who are now unsure about what the future holds.

This year, United Workers Union members have been negotiating a new collective agreement with Coles. Members are fighting for:

- A fair redundancy package that will compensate them for many years of hard work & recognise the difficulty in finding new work due to the pandemic;
- The right to transfer to the new automated Coles warehouse without loss of wages;
- Job security for long term casual workers who will otherwise walk away with nothing.

During the pandemic, Coles supermarket sales have soared by 6.9% & earnings have increased by 10.7%. On top of this, the Coles CEO Steven Cain’s remuneration package increased by 28.9% to more than $7 Million dollars in 2020! Now it's time for cashed up Coles to share their profits with the workers that created them!

Partner

Updates

2021-03-02 10:40:48 +1100

Petition is successful with 6,677 signatures

2020-11-29 15:29:36 +1100

5,000 signatures reached

2020-11-19 16:52:33 +1100

1,000 signatures reached

2020-11-19 12:56:15 +1100

500 signatures reached

2020-11-19 11:30:47 +1100

100 signatures reached

2020-11-19 11:11:33 +1100

50 signatures reached

2020-11-19 10:47:56 +1100

25 signatures reached

2020-11-19 10:31:43 +1100

10 signatures reached