The Warehouse: where everyone gets to bargain

After just one week of recruiting at The Warehouse Distribution Centre in Auckland, 130 employees joined the NDU, including workers from the company’s Christchurch site. Growth Unit organiser Jim Meyer says the presence of an in-house union is a complication. The Warehouse People’s Union (WPU) was set up with the initial co-operation of The Warehouse management. “When we signed up 52 workers in the first two hours recruitment it quickly became clear that workers weren’t happy with the company, the WPU or their new collective agreement. Workers were gutted when we showed them standard NDU industry wages for distribution workers.” A few days before the NDU arrived on site, the WPU signed a three-year agreement with the company. NDU lawyer Greg Lloyd says under the Employment Relations Act workers can only be covered by one collective agreement. Even if workers quit one union and join another union they are still covered by the original collective agreement until it expires. The WPU agreement expires in 2010. “But we believe there are problems with the agreement that could allow workers to challenge it on legal grounds and exercise their collective bargaining rights with the NDU,” he says. Jim says the union is gearing up for a campaign to get workers out of their current low-pay trap. “The Warehouse has traded for years on its commitment to social responsibility. It’s time the company put it’s money where its mouth is.”