The supermarket giant needs to resolve the industrial dispute at distribution centres before customers start turning on the brand.
Woolworths is caught in the ultimate pincer movement. Pitchfork-wielding politicians are blaming it and its competitor Coles for fuelling inflation, suppliers and customers are fed up with prices, and the competition watchdog is accusing them of gilding the lily on discounts.
Woolworth workers form a picket line outside the Woolworths Melbourne South Regional Distribution Centre in Dandenong South on Monday.For consumers, this means some shelves at Woolies are either thinly stocked or empty – a situation that no doubt revives the ghosts of the COVID-induced toilet paper famine and the pasta paucity.
The likes of Amazon have upended the productivity of this piece of the overall supply chain infrastructure, and in doing so reduced the number of workers needed to run a warehouse. The nature of tasks has also changed.Post-pandemic, the public has become used to instant gratification when buying a whole range of products including supermarket groceries. Both Woolworths and Coles have spent hundreds of millions in recent years injecting technology into their warehouses to meet that demand.
The United Workers Union says it is a health and safety issue because staff have reported feeling pressured to cut corners and work unsafely or lose their job if they don’t work at higher speeds.
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