A-Infos (en) Australia, ACF: Picket Line -- WareHouSe blues (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In an industry that desperately needs organisation, WHS organising can 
be the perfect first step towards building the union. ---- Working in 
logistics is tough. ---- For the most part, it means hours of moving 
heavy boxes and wrapping pallets. Forklift duties can be a break from 
the monotony, but working with forklifts is serious stuff. One wrong 
move and you can hit someone, drop a pallet, or send tonnes of racking 
crashing down. ---- A badly organised warehouse is intensely stressful, 
especially for forkies. After a day of pulling down pallets, your neck 
kills from looking up.

Then there's the climate. Many warehouses have poor temperature control. 
In winter, they're freezing. In summer, heat gets trapped until the 
building becomes a hotbox. Repetitive manual labour in intense heat is a 
recipe for dehydration and broken bodies.

I've worked through multiple 35°+C days without air conditioning. In one 
facility, we had tiny portable coolers you had to stand directly in 
front of. When bosses discovered they drained power from our conveyor 
belt, the belt took priority.

None of this is reflected in the pay. It's typical to earn just $60k in 
a full-time position. Casualisation is rife and precarious migrant 
workers make up a big chunk of the workforce. Bosses take advantage of 
language barriers and unfamiliarity with rights to protect profits.

Clearly, we need to get organised. But many warehouses, particularly 
smaller ones, have to start from scratch, without pre-existing union 
structures.

Health and safety: A gateway to unionism
The good news is that you don't need an existing EBA to start acting 
like unionists. Health and Safety Committees can give that action some 
shape.

Take my most recent warehouse. When I started, the two Safety reps 
were... the manager and assistant manager! Rather than take issues to 
them, I listened to co-workers:

"The floor is a mess, there's pallets everywhere. How are we supposed to 
move?" "I can't work another winter here. Why did they have to take away 
our desk heaters?" "I can't wrap another pallet in this heat."

Had they considered the Health and Safety Committee? Well, we didn't 
really have one.

I encouraged co-workers to consider joining and took the issue to our 
regular morning meeting. When pressed, HR conceded that the existing 
'committee' wasn't legitimate. They requested volunteers, and a group of 
us were ready.

Winning control
At the first meeting, there was an even split on the committee between 
workers and managers. Luckily, the assistant manager soon resigned. The 
company had fired one of our pick-packers, and the team's angry response 
rattled him. I refused anything beyond core duties in protest, and was 
backed by co-workers. Understaffed, and with the assistant manager gone, 
the floor manager was suddenly a bit busy for WHS meetings.

From there, I insisted the committee be worker-led. By the third 
meeting, the bosses and HR were gone, and I was elected Chair. We 
established democratic norms. Any staff member could attend, raise 
motions, and vote. Obviously, I had led the effort, but collective 
control and getting volunteers for other roles gave members ownership. 
It was our project, not mine.

Our first demand was extra paid breaks during extreme heat and heating 
for winter. I prepared a report on employer WHS obligations and 
recommended health standards. But rather than simply move a proposal, I 
invited debate: what were we willing to sign our names to?

We settled on a sliding scale of paid breaks as temperatures reached 
30+°C, a new heating system, and cool refreshments in the break room. HR 
stonewalled. We harassed management for two months. In a company-wide 
Zoom meeting, committee members made clear to management how serious we 
were.

Finally, we got a new policy. We could take extra paid breaks during 
extreme weather, and the fridge was stocked with icy poles and drinks. 
The heating system was rejected as too expensive, but personal desk 
heaters were allowed again. No specific temperatures or time limits were 
included. As with any workplace policy, we had to be strong enough to 
enforce what we wanted out of it.

Building confidence
The WHS committee was a step towards building confidence and solidarity.

The first test of that solidarity came when a co-worker was threatened 
with discipline for occasionally being five minutes late (something 
another worker had already been driven out for).

This time, the whole team stood together. I attended disciplinary 
meetings as a support person. When I made the union pitch, my co-worker 
didn't need convincing. He liked my attitude and signed up. When the 
disciplinary attempts failed, everyone's fear of punishment for lateness 
disappeared. It hasn't been an issue since.

Soon after, management announced one of the best perks of the job was 
ending. The company was cutting 16 rostered half-days during summer - 
essentially eight days of paid leave.

Some were initially apathetic ("it was good while it lasted"). But after 
we started talking, we decided to respond collectively. Before our daily 
meeting, we agreed to oppose it. The floor manager was surprised at the 
pushback, and said he would see what he could do.

When nothing happened the next day, we had another tense meeting. We 
decided to jointly draft an email to HR, saying the whole team opposed 
the change. Suddenly, the boss nervously presented us with a schedule 
for our half-days. We'd won back our RDOs! Funnily enough, the policy 
hadn't actually been reversed. Our manager was secretly breaking the 
rules to keep us satisfied.

It was empowering to force a change, but our victory wasn't enshrined in 
writing. We were later told this was a one-off and wouldn't happen 
again. That's the risk with informalism. Would we be able to mobilise 
and oppose the change next time?

Without us, nothing moves
Informal action and WHS structures offer opportunities, but we can't 
stop there. They should be steps towards union power. Had our call for a 
heating system been backed by industrial action, we could have won. And 
with an EBA, the heat policy and rostered half-days would be set in stone.

The truth is that we are less replaceable than people imagine. Warehouse 
inventory systems and processes take time to learn. And we're central to 
capitalism functioning. Pick-packers, forklift drivers, and logistics 
administrators are the reason anything in this country moves. Without 
us, machinery, equipment, and the latest thing you ordered online would 
sit collecting dust.

That gives us enormous potential power. If warehouse workers were 
organised industry-wide, we could bring the entire economy to a halt.

That will only happen one step at a time. So if you're in a non-union 
warehouse, and someone complains about the heat or lack of floor-space, 
ask what they think should be done. Are they willing to join the WHS 
Committee? And if the bosses won't budge, what then? Will they just give up?

Or are they willing to fight?

https://ancomfed.org/2026/10/warehouse-blues/
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