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March 29, 2024, 02:48:41 am

Author Topic: Woolworths unions  (Read 4610 times)  Share 

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TTanner01

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Woolworths unions
« on: December 09, 2020, 05:18:19 pm »
+1
Does anyone work at Woolies (or any retail/fast food place) and knows anything about unions, especially the SDA and RAFFWU?

I started a job at Woolies not too long ago and people have recommended leaving the SDA for RAFFWU. I assume I'm part of the SDA right now as my hourly rate on my payslip is the same as the SDA wagesheet online, but people have said that apparently someone from the SDA comes to your store and asks you to sign up, which has never happened to me, so I dunno what I'm part of lol.

A lot of people also saying that the SDA charges weekly for union fees but I haven't found anything about this on my payslip or anything? What's majorly different with RAFFWU?
I'm definitely missing a lot of info on unions so if anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it!

PhoenixxFire

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Re: Woolworths unions
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2020, 01:45:08 pm »
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Oh look a fairly niche topic that I happen to know quite a bit about.

TL;DR 3000% do not join the SDA.

So basically raffwu is a fairly new union - historically it's just been the SDA. SDA takes money out of your weekly paycheck, you'll have gotten a signup form for them with your commencement paperwork and lots of people just fill it out not realising that it's optional. If you don't fill it out you get an SDA rep showing up to harass you when you're trying to work.

Raffwu was started more recently as a result of the SDA's shittieness - not sure if it's still the case but at least a couple of years ago they charge yearly fees rather than taking it from your paycheck.

The SDA is a shitty organisation all around. They're meant to be fighting for workers but they actually just work with woolies. The pay agreements that they make are frequently worse than award rates (which is actually illegal but that's a story for another day). - With the old agreement that woolies had, I was getting about $20/week less than I would have gotten under award rates (award rates are the standard rate of pay where there isn't an enterprise agreement - EAs are meant to provide better pay/conditions than award). The SDA can take money off your weekly pay checks and include their brochure in your paperwork and visit you at work because Woolies lets them. SDA makes money off you, woolies saves money by not paying you properly. Also the SDA uses the money that they make off workers to donate to political parties and oppose marriage equality and abortion - not exactly what you'd expect them to use your money for.

Raffwu does what a union is actually meant to do and fights for workers against corporations to actually get better working conditions and pay for you. basically the sda is a bunch of corrupt fuckers and raffwu is genuinely a union.

Also fun fact my baby brother (who I had to badger to get to join raffwu in the first place) got invited to go along to the negotiations with maccas about actually getting their paid breaks and compensation for people who were forced to work through them. No idea how he ended up getting involved with that lmao but he did.
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TTanner01

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Re: Woolworths unions
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2020, 05:26:03 pm »
0
Hey thanks for the reply, definitely helped the confusion.

Hol' up I don't remember signing any commencement paperwork at all (or even signing anything when I went to orientation). Is this normal? I mentioned previously that I assumed I was part of the SDA (because my hourly rate is same as the rate on https://www.sdansw.org.au/system/files/Woolworths%20Wagesheet%20%201%20Oct%202020b.pdf, which is the SDA website). Like did my manager sign it up for me without me knowing or what lol

Ok so I get the general gist of RAFFWU, but what specific changes are made with my work? Like do I get more hourly rates, or longer breaktimes, or more shifts or something? Because the SDA agreement (https://www.sda.org.au/download/enterprise-agreements/Woolworths-Supermarkets-Agreement-2018.pdf) outlines everything for me (e.g. 5 hour shift with 15 min paid break). If I were to change to RAFFWU (assuming I'm part of SDA... idek anymore), what happens? The RAFFWU woolies website doesn't really say much besides laying out statistics and telling you to join their union, without actually mentioning what type of benefit you get.

Should I have a talk with my line manager about unions, or should I just deal with this myself? I believe joining unions are confidential or something, so I don't really want the manager to manipulate me somehow lol or perhaps I'm speculating too much

And yeh it does suck to here the SDA being bloodsucking :/ don't know how they are still running tbh
Thanks again PF :)
« Last Edit: December 10, 2020, 05:30:04 pm by TTanner01 »

PhoenixxFire

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Re: Woolworths unions
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2020, 05:35:33 pm »
+4
They usually put a form in with the paperwork you get about filling out your bank details for payments and all that.

Being in a union won't change anything for you individually. You pay/breaks etc isn't affected by you swapping unions. You'll get the same pay/breaks etc as everyone else who works for the same business regardless of what unions y'all are in.
Unions just use the money you pay them to fight for better conditions for everyone - so at woolies you have an enterprise agreement (you can probably find it online), that's what determines how much you get paid, what breaks you get, all that sort of stuff. Enterprise agreements are decided between the employer (woolies) and the unions (sda and raffwu).

The more people in the union, the more leverage they have to get the employer to agree to things they want. Like if the SDA had 10,000 members and raffwu has 100 and raffwu wants half hour breaks but the sda is fine with 15 min breaks, raffwu is probably gonna get ignored because the employer can appease the majority with just giving you 15 min breaks. The more numbers the union has the easier it is for them to fight for better conditions - but those conditions are for everyone, it's not variable depending on whether you individually sign up.

Unions are most valuable when those enterprise agreements are being made - you want the union that's meant to be fighting for what you want to actually be doing that and not be corrupt.

On an individual level unions can help with disputes with employers or helping with complaints but that's probably not something you need to worry about right now.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2020, 05:37:19 pm by PhoenixxFire »
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TTanner01

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Re: Woolworths unions
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2020, 05:46:27 pm »
0
They usually put a form in with the paperwork you get about filling out your bank details for payments and all that.

Being in a union won't change anything for you individually. You pay/breaks etc isn't affected by you swapping unions. You'll get the same pay/breaks etc as everyone else who works for the same business regardless of what unions y'all are in.
Unions just use the money you pay them to fight for better conditions for everyone - so at woolies you have an enterprise agreement (you can probably find it online), that's what determines how much you get paid, what breaks you get, all that sort of stuff. Enterprise agreements are decided between the employer (woolies) and the unions (sda and raffwu).

The more people in the union, the more leverage they have to get the employer to agree to things they want. Like if the SDA had 10,000 members and raffwu has 100 and raffwu wants half hour breaks but the sda is fine with 15 min breaks, raffwu is probably gonna get ignored because the employer can appease the majority with just giving you 15 min breaks. The more numbers the union has the easier it is for them to fight for better conditions - but those conditions are for everyone, it's not variable depending on whether you individually sign up.

Unions are most valuable when those enterprise agreements are being made - you want the union that's meant to be fighting for what you want to actually be doing that and not be corrupt.

On an individual level unions can help with disputes with employers or helping with complaints but that's probably not something you need to worry about right now.
Ahh that makes more sense. I'll heed your advice and not join the SDA  :P

So, not in a scumbag way or anything, is it necessary for me to join a union? Not that I don't want to fight for better working conditions or anything, but in a hypothetical sense, do I need to sign up?

Dang how long were you in the SDA before making the switch to RAFFWU? Losing $20 per week is horrible from the SDA

Thanks :)

PhoenixxFire

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Re: Woolworths unions
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2020, 06:00:40 pm »
+4
You don't have to*. If/when woolies starts negotiating a new ea then it's definitely worth joining though.

I was one of those naive 15 year olds who just filled in all the forms they were given and didn't give it a second thought for too many years. It's why I hate the sda so much now lmao.

*You may be accosted by SDA reps at some point if you choose not to, they can't force you to do anything, feel free to tell them to fuck off or just take the free break you get by talking to them
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TTanner01

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Re: Woolworths unions
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2020, 11:50:05 pm »
+2
Haha I love your attitude so much. So refreshing to read these 😂

I'll tell them to fuck off in honour of you ahah