The National Union of Workers' state secretary Tim Kennedy called on Coles to help resolve the dispute. He said staff employed by Toll at Somerton were on far worse pay and conditions than at other Coles warehouses where the supermarket directly employs staff.
Mark Judkins has worked at Somerton for three years and was on the picket line yesterday. He said he wanted to return to work ''but under conditions we think are fair and reasonable''.
“We left today’s meeting with an agreement to meet again tomorrow and we will go into that meeting in good faith in the hope that Toll will put a new proposal on the table that goes someway to addressing the issues,” Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Kennedy thanked the workers who had been on the picket line since 6am this morning and warned it could be a long battle.
“These workers all have bills to pay, some have families and mortgage payments to meet and they would like nothing more than to go back to work. But they won’t be doing that until Coles start treating them with respect and offer them equal pay and equal rights as other Coles workers,” Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Judkins predicted Toll would try to run trucks through the picket line next week.
''There's going to be a lot of fireworks,'' he said. He said there were 46,000 pallets of alcohol and food sitting in the centre. ''Millions of dollars of stock sitting there, on the back of our claim, and it's costing them. They're fighting an ideological argument.''
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