This Thursday, thousands of transport workers around the country will strike for 24 hours in a coordinated push for a safer, fairer future in Australia's deadliest industry, which has been dragged down by companies like Aldi and Amazon continually pushing work to the cheapest option.
After months of negotiations, transport workers at companies including FedEx, Border Express, K&S, SCT, PFD, Sadliers, Goldstar and Qube will commence strike action between midnight and 4am on Thursday for 24 hours, with K&S ChemTrans workers, who cart dangerous goods, taking 48 hours of strike action.
Workers are calling for pay that brings them in line with industry standards, job security, and a say in the future of their industries when it comes to automation and AI.
These companies cart goods for some of the biggest brands in the country, including Aldi, BHP, Metcash, Coca-Cola, and BlueScope.
The TWU has come to agreement at major transport companies like Team Global Express, Toll, Linfox and BevChain that provide job security and future of work protections. But these companies are in danger of losing work to others where workers are 10 to 30% under industry standards with little to no job security, and significant safety issues.
Crushing pressures for transport to be faster and cheaper, while clients like supermarkets and retailers make mammoth profits, have made road transport Australia's deadliest industry, with 123 killed this year in truck crashes, 31 of them truck drivers.
The TWU is calling on outliers like Amazon and Aldi, whose massive profits flow offshore, to step in and fund decent standards in their supply chains to ensure the people getting critical supplies around the country have safe, fair jobs.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
"Transport workers have two options: they can watch corporate greed make their industry more deadly, and turn their jobs into scraps of work managed by algorithms. Or they can stand up for a transport industry with secure, safe work that allows them to provide for their families.
"The workers who move critical supplies around our country are seeing their industry become more dangerous because of the greed of huge transport clients like supermarkets and retailers looking for the cheapest option.
"They are taking strike action because they have been left with no other choice. This is a fight for the entire future of a critical industry that has been decimated by the likes of Aldi and Amazon. Responsible Australian businesses are being pushed out and workers and the community are paying the price of rampant undercutting with their lives.
"It's time for these companies, and the huge clients transporting their goods, to stop ripping good jobs apart and come to the table on an industry that is fair for workers and the whole Australian community."
