ww in NZ ~ 1

January 17 2007

Below is a cut and paste directly from the New Zealand Herald.

Progressive approach to New Zealand market Woolworths has vowed to offer better prices to New Zealand consumers as it drives down costs in the market.

Chief executive Roger Corbett said yesterday that the supermarket giant would significantly reduce costs here by taking advantage of its systems and technology.

"We recognise we face a good competitor [in Foodstuffs] but we think that we're going to see good solid growth in New Zealand."

Corbett said the company planned to open more supermarkets in New Zealand and was considering new liquor outlets and perhaps general merchandise. It has opened two new supermarkets since November, when it bought Progressive Enterprises - owner of Countdown, Woolworths NZ and Foodtown.

Since November, the New Zealand division has made $2.9 billion of sales. Gross margin was 22 per cent and ebit (earnings before interest and tax) was $122.5 million. Trading ebit was $132 million for the eight months since acquisition.

Last September, when the company was still owned by Foodland, the New Zealand supermarkets reported record sales of $4.31 billion. Progressive has 43 per cent of the grocery market against Foodstuffs' 57 per cent.

In a "pleasing post-acquisition performance", its comparable sales rose by 3.5 per cent in the third quarter and by 3.8 per cent in the fourth. Overall food inflation was between 1.5 and 2 per cent, consistent with prior periods.

Woolworths said it expected its changes would take two or three years to be evident.

The Australian parent plans to streamline Progressive's systems and apply its supply chain and inventory management.

It would also investigate the viability of rolling out "new formats" including general merchandise, liquor and pharmacy lines. 

Friday August 25th 2006

More than 500 workers who supply the 165 Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets across New Zealand began a 48-hour strike at 5am today.

The National Distribution Union said they were taking action against Progressive Enterprises, which owns the supermarkets, for a single nation-wide collective agreement. The workers want equal pay rates and all existing allowances combined into a site allowance of up to $2.50, an eight per cent pay rise and an extra week service leave.

The strike began in Auckland, Palmerston North, and at the two Christchurch distribution centres. The union organiser for striking Progressive supermarket workers was arrested on the picket line in Auckland this morning.

Nearly 600 workers supplying Progressive's Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworth's supermarkets in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch have been on strike since Friday at 4am.

The National Distribution Union is demanding a single nationwide collective agreement.

The workers want equal pay rates and all existing allowances combined into a site allowance, an 8 per cent pay rise and an extra week's service leave.

Union national secretary Laila Harre said the employees were stopping supply trucks servicing the supermarkets.

"The workers are holding the line and there is nothing coming in and out at this stage, touch wood."

However, Ms Harre said today's strike had not run smoothly as the union's negotiator was arrested.

"We're not quite sure why. There hasn't been any aggravation or violence on the picket line."

Ms Harre said it was "unfortunate" that it was the union's negotiator to be arrested.

"And the company will obviously be waiting some time for their workers to come back as a result."

The Progressives employer had also made no effort to contact the union over the weekend, Ms Harre said.

"(The company) does not seem interested in ongoing discussions at this stage."

Ms Harre said the strike was initially going to last for 48 hours, but the employer suspended the workers and said they could not come back to work unless they came back "unconditionally".

"And so the strike continues."

The two groups were due to meet at midday today to decide what their next moves were going to be, Ms Harre said.

Monday August 28th 2006

Striking staff and management of a national chain of supermarket grocery supply centres are stalemated. Five hundred workers at Progressive Enterprises' four distribution centres, on strike since Friday, have been locked out of the Australian-owned company's Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch sites.

Yesterday, managing director Marty Hamnett said the centres, supplying Foodtown, Woolworths, Countdown, Fresh Choice and Super Value stores, would be shut down.

"We would prefer to keep the distribution centres open but we cannot meet unreasonable union demands for what in effect is a 30 per cent wage increase," he said. "These unrealistic union demands, if agreed to, would threaten the livelihoods of our staff, our suppliers and our very

business and set a dangerous precedent. 

"The supermarket industry is extremely competitive and under increasing price pressure, from fuel price hikes and a low dollar. We pay market rates and ensure our wages and wage increases are fair and sustainable." 

National Distribution Union national secretary Laila Harre said the lockout meant that Progressive would not let workers return to work even if they chose to. The union said members would return to work only if the company committed to negotiating a single nationwide collective agreement.

Union negotiator Stan Renwick was yesterday released on bail after police arrested him for obstructing a roadway. 

Wednesday August 30, 2006

The industrial dispute involving an Australasian supermarket giant is getting ugly, with allegations of dirty tactics and outright lies. About 500 workers at Progressive Enterprises' distribution centres

supplying Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths supermarkets have been on strike since Friday over a pay and holiday dispute.

National Distribution Union's national secretary Laila Harre said the company was stocking supermarket shelves from elsewhere. "We have received information the company has contracted [an] outside company to handle distribution, which is, in our view, blatantly illegal."

The union was urgently seeking legal advice, she said. The company denied the claim. Progressive had not made any attempt to contact either the union or mediators, Ms Harre said. Its full-page newspaper adverts, which ran in yesterday's New Zealand Herald and regional papers, "were full of lies", Ms Harre said.

She said the enthusiasm of the 500 workers, now in day four of what was to be a 48-hour strike, had not waned. Progressive Enterprises' managing director, Marty Hamnett, said the company had not contracted out grocery supply. 

"It is absolute nonsense," he said. "What we are doing is circumventing our warehouses and delivering directly to stores."

He also slammed Ms Harre's allegations that the company was running a "PR strategy", saying the union had been running a campaign "for weeks and weeks".

"Ours is not a media campaign, it's a communications programme to ensure the facts are getting out into the market place, rather than just fiction," he said.

Friday September 01, 2006

It is hoped an "unusual step" taken by an employment court judge yesterday will help find resolution to the stand-off between supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises and nearly 600 distribution workers.

The workers have been on strike for a week, and Progressive has implemented a "lock-out" since Monday.

National Distribution Union (NDU) seeks national pay rates across the company's four distribution centres, in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch, and a national collective agreement to be drawn up. Mediation between the parties broke down on Wednesday. NDU national secretary Laila Harre said mediation would resume today with a mediator and an Employment Court judge overseeing negotiations between the two parties.

Yesterday, Employment Court Chief Judge Graeme Colgan ordered the parties to mediate before a judge -- an unusual step Ms Harre said. "The normal course of events is that parties are referred back to a Department of Labour mediator.

"We are very grateful for the order providing for a judge as we hopes it puts a level of formality and seriousness on proceedings and keeps Progressive at the table."

Ms Harre said she hoped today's mediation would address the workers' claims.

Judge Colgan yesterday reserved his decision on a request from NDU and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union for an interim injunction to stop outside parties packing goods for distribution to supermarkets.

Ms Harre said the unions had organised "flying picket lines" which were moving around, targeting supermarkets where they believed stand-in workers had been employed.

The striking workers were feeling the pinch but had received generous donations from other unions, and members of the public, Ms Harre said. They had also been told by Work and Income that some may be eligible for emergency benefits.

Tuesday September 05, 2006. Australasian supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises Limited (PEL) is employing "nasty tactics" as its dispute with about 600 distribution workers reaches 12 days without resolution, National Distribution Union publicity officer Simon Oosterman said

today.

Forty-two of the company's 93 Palmerston North workers left the picket line yesterday and rejoined the workforce.

The company has said non-union staff will receive pay reviews, a move Mr Oosterman says is designed to "de-unionise" supermarkets.

The workers began what was meant to be a 48-hour strike over a pay dispute on August 25, but were locked out by PEL three days later. Mediation between the two parties broke down early on and an Employment Court judge order to resume negotiations has failed to find a solution.

The workers want a national collective agreement to cover the country's four distribution centres but PEL said the agreements were historically and necessarily separate.

Yesterday, an Employment Court judge refused an interim injunction request from NDU to prevent the company using delivery firms to replace the locked-out staff -- the case will go to hearing next week.

Mr Oosterman said despite the Palmerston North workers' return, morale on the picket lines remained strong. He said he could understand the pressure the returning workers were

under. "Those people are under financial stress," he said. "That's partly why we're launching a financial appeal, so the rest of the workers don't feel they need to return to work because they're being bullied into starving."

The union is launching an 0900 LOCK OUT (0900 5685 688) number today to raise donations for the locked-out workers.

They had already received support from other unions and members of the public, he said.

PEL was meeting with other supermarket workers this week to discuss their pay demands and had promised those on individual contracts pay rises, he said.

"That's a pretty nasty tactic," he said.

"It's an attempt to de-unionise supermarkets." PEL was also distorting what the workers wanted -- telling supermarket customers their demands amounted to a 30 per cent payrise, when in fact

the total was between 10 and 12 per cent. The unions had been prepared to negotiate and their request had been a bargaining position, Mr Oosterman said.

However, PEL had not come to the negotiating table. PEL has described the union's demands as a "major stumbling block".

"Frankly, it feels like we are being held to ransom, but I am happy our contingency plans are beginning to see stock flow through to stores," managing director Marty Hamnett said.

He said the union had not considered the impact of its "unrealistic demands" on employment costs, saying they would affect all of the company's employees and customers. Mr Hamnett said negotiations could not begin until the unions dropped their demands for a single national agreement.

Friday September 08, 2006. 

National and international unions are set to add their weight to the stalemate between locked out distribution workers and supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises, in the hope of exerting financial pressure on the multi-billion-dollar company.

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) held a special meeting in Wellington today, hosting representatives of 37 unions representing 350,000 New Zealand union members.

The delegates at the meeting today agreed all 37 unions would support the claims of the 600 locked out workers, while also backing the actions of Progressive supermarket workers, currently in pay negotiations, and striking members of the NZ Meat Workers Union.

The group condemned the lock out action of Progressive, and acknowledged the support across unions in New Zealand and Australia, and the wider community.

The unions resolved to take "every possible action", industrial or otherwise, to support the National Distribution Union and Engineering, Manufacturing and Printing Union in their efforts to achieve fair settlement of the dispute.

They also resolved to raise funds for the workers; to advise international unions of the principles at stake and ask for their support; and to examine legal options.

About 600 of Progressive's distribution workers went on strike on August 25 in support of their bid for a national collective agreement. 

Progressive said this was non-negotiable and the workers were locked out three days later.

Mediation has failed to find a resolution.

CTU president Ross Wilson said workers from the picket lines in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch addressed the meeting, speaking of the hardship they were facing after more than two weeks without pay.

Despite the hardline approach taken by Progressive, Mr Wilson said the workers would not give in.

Two key objectives had emerged from the meeting - the primary one being to raise financial support for the locked out workers.

Mr Wilson said New Zealand union members would all be asked to offer their support, and there were already "big donations" coming in from Australian unions.

Unions from the United States would also be approached. 

The second initiative would be to look at what industrial action could be taken both here and overseas to exert financial pressure on Progressive.

The unions would look at the possibility of preventing Progressive products being shipped in to New Zealand from Australia, with the assistance of the Maritime Union and its Australian affiliates.

Other options available through the unions' international affiliates would also be examined, Mr Wilson said. 

It was a serious situation, and the unions were resolved to support the workers and prevent them from being "bullied into starvation" by Progressive, owned by Australia's second-largest company, Woolworths Australia.

Mr Wilson acknowledged the difficulty in exerting financial pressure on a business group which recorded a $1.21 billion profit last year, up 24.3 per cent from the previous year.

However, he said there was wide-reaching support and strong resolve to increase pressure on Progressive, and support the workers. 

"Never in my whole career as a union official, which is more than 30 years, have I seen such determination," Mr Wilson said. 

Meanwhile unionist Andrew Little today challenged all MPs to match or beat a $200 donation to the locked-out worker fund, given by cabinet minister Steve Maharey.

He said Mr Maharey was a man of "conscience and principle" and added politicians from both the left and right had donated funds to picket lines over the years.

He said National MPs could choose to offer their donations anonymously if they preferred.

Wednesday September 13, 2006 By Tapu Misa

The Tongan in the family has just discovered that he looks Muslim to most Americans, and that this is not a good thing at present when one is travelling in the US. He complains he's been put through the wringer at every US airport at which he's had the misfortune to stop, and can't

wait to come home to saner, safer ground. 

Huh, I tell him, you think you've got problems. I've been supermarket shopping, which is no picnic either.  On my last trip, someone apologised for the empty shelves and explained that it was all the fault of the distribution workers and their unreasonable demand for a 30 per cent pay rise.

I sympathised at this outrageous demand, only to find out later that the union says it has asked for 8 per cent.

Not that I'm suggesting this misinformation was put out deliberately by Progressive Enterprises, which owns the Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths supermarkets. It's just worrying that a company that employs 18,000 people and has a 45 per cent share of the New Zealand grocery

market could be so wide of the mark. 

The dispute between Progressive and its 500-plus distribution workers and their union, the National Distribution Union (NDU), is shaping up as a critical last stand for unions. "If we lose this," says one union organiser, "we'll go backwards."

Employers, too, see the dispute as an ideological one. Alasdair Thompson, the chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association, said that "if they were to pull this off then it could well lead to other situations where other employers who operate nationally see this sort of thing tried out against them". 

Thompson is right about there being an ideological barrier, but it seems in this case to be with the employer.

The sticking point is a national agreement on which Progressive says it won't budge. The union wants equal pay for equal work for its Auckland, Christchurch and Palmerston North workers. The Palmerston North workers are paid about $1 an hour more than their Auckland counterparts and about $2 more than Christchurch workers.

Last year, Progressive promised the workers a national agreement. But that all changed in November when it was bought by Woolworths Australia, which recently announced a 24.3 per cent increase in profits of $1.2 billion.

That backtracking led to a 48-hour strike, which led to the company refusing to negotiate on the national agreement, and locking out its workers on August 28.

There has been a fair bit of emotive language since. On TV3 a couple of nights ago NDU leader Laila Harre, was intent on reminding viewers that this was an Australian company, "a guest in this country" who was being asked to play fair with its New Zealand workforce.

Manukau City Councillor Su'a William Sio has characterised this as a David v Goliath struggle. "This is a fight between ordinary hard-working people and the mean-spirited stance by a billion-dollar multinational giant."

And the workers? One veteran told me: "I don't think this is about the workers. I think the company wants to break the union." Certainly, it's hard to see why else the company would have dug in its heels. 

Ninety per cent of the 330 locked-out Auckland workers are Pacific Islanders, and there's a Pacific flavour to the picket line at Progressive's Mangere headquarters.

When I called in a few days ago, there was Pacific music, chicken sandwiches, and a group of Tongan men sitting cross-legged under a tarpaulin, drinking kava and surveying the picket line.

But beneath the outwardly cheerful atmosphere was a grim determination. One delegate told me many of these workers live from one payday to another. "They get paid on Wednesday and by the weekend, they've got $20 or $30 left."

Siaosi has a mortgage to pay and two kids. Daniel tells me he and his wife and son live with his wife's parents, so they're not as badly off as many of the others. One man and his wife both work at Progressive, so the family's taking a double hit. They have three young children and are getting by only with the help of extended family.

I noticed an us-and-them mentality. A group of workers blamed that on the company. Even the annual Christmas party is a sore point - a marquee with all the trimmings for administration staff, and a lunch, in January, for the plebs.

Siaosi, who has been there about 15 years, says the workers feel they're going backwards. Two years ago they won the right to earn overtime after 40 hours worked; now the company is proposing that overtime kicks in after 45 hours.

Siaosi is right about going backwards. According to the 2006 Social Report, Pacific Islanders like him are worse off than they were 20 years ago: less likely to be employed than in 1986 and twice as likely to be on low incomes than the rest of the population.

It's a problem Siaosi and his workmates have in common with many American workers, who celebrated Labour Day this month with a median hourly wage that has declined since 2003, despite a rise in productivity over the same period.

The problem is the decline in union power, which as David Sirota writes in the San Francisco Chronicle has seen unions bashed to the point where they're referenced with terms reserved for military targets. Yes, terms like "terrorist organisation" and "a clear and present danger to the

security of the United States".

"It is no coincidence that as union membership and power has declined under withering anti-union attacks, workers have seen their wages stagnate, pensions slashed, and share of the national income hit a 60-year low."

Friday September 15, 2006

The groundswell of support for locked-out supermarket distribution workers appears to be growing, with some large individual donations arriving over the past two days, unions say.

Meanwhile, Progressive Enterprises - the Australian-owned company that owns Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown - appears to have settled a dispute with about 4200 in-store retail staff today, but a standoff remains between the company and 500 distribution workers.

The distribution workers went on strike three weeks ago to protest their right to negotiate a national collective agreement for the centres in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch.

The company refused to negotiate a national agreement, locking out workers who have been feeling the pinch with no wages since the strike started.

Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont this morning said two $5000 donations and a $10,000 donation had been received from Australia and New Zealand.

"Collections in Wellington are averaging over $1000 daily, and $3000 was raised during two hours of collecting in Auckland this week," Ms Beaumont said.

She said she hoped Progressive Enterprises was taking note of the level of public concern about its negotiation tactics.

Progressive Enterprises was today not commenting on the issue. 

Christchurch distribution workers plan to do their own fundraising by holding a picket-line car boot sale tomorrow morning. 

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) spokesman Ged O'Connell said most of the 150 Christchurch staff had families to look after.

"The car boot sale is a really practical way in which they can put some food on the table," he said.

He said it had been heartening to see anyone from pensioners to business people handing financial and other donations over at the picket line in recent days.

"Every tin of baked beans and every supportive message is really appreciated," he said.

Tuesday September 19, 2006

Representatives from three Australian unions yesterday joined locked-out supermarket workers on the picket line in Auckland, giving moral and financial support.

About 500 distribution workers at supermarket distribution centres in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch are into their fourth week of industrial action.

The workers want a national collective agreement between the regions but their Australian-owned employer Progressive Enterprises, which owns Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown, has so far refused to negotiate. 

Glenn Nightingale, from the Transport Workers' Union of Australia, said the Australian contingent had raised $15,000 for their New Zealand counterparts and had come across the Tasman to support them.

He was critical of the way Progressive Enterprises was dealing with the dispute.

"They've come over to New Zealand and are trying to deny living wages and conditions for hardworking people and their families," Mr Nightingale told National Radio.

He said he was heartened at the level of passion and high spirits of the locked-out workers but admitted they had a fight on their hands.

"They [Progressive] are tough-minded and, when you consider the CEO probably earns about as much in a day as what the average worker here earns in one year, it's frightening.

"No one deserves millions of dollars to come and take the money off hardworking New Zealand workers."

Mr Nightingale said workers fought hard for collective agreements within industries in Australia.

"A dollar is a dollar in Australia and it's the same in New Zealand. You don't get a discount on your electricity bill or any other rates and taxes you have to pay."

Today, the stand-off moves to the Employment Court in Auckland where the legality of the lockout will be challenged. 

Thursday September 21, 2006

Progressive Enterprises and the union representing locked-out distribution workers appear close to nailing down an offer to take to members.

Company representatives met the National Distribution Union last night and presented an offer.

Union national secretary Laila Harre said the parties were going over final details of the offer, which would then be discussed by members at a meeting planned for noon today.

More than 500 workers at supermarket distribution centres in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch have been without pay since August 25. 

Thursday September 21, 2006 By Chris Ormond

Laila Harre said workers would be pleased to get a pay cheque next week. Victories were claimed today by both the union representing locked-out supermarket distribution workers and their employers after a bitter month-long pay dispute finally ended.

The National Distribution Union, representing over 500 workers, won pay parity across the three distribution centres in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch for supermarkets owned by Australian company Progressive Enterprises.

The union did not get its wish of one collective agreement for all three centres but its secretary Laila Harre said the terms were the same. "It's not a major issue from our point of view. This is a national collective agreement in all but name. "The most important thing for these workers was using their national bargaining power to deliver equal pay for equal work and they've done a stunning job of that," she said.

Progressive managing director Marty Hamnett said it was not logical to agree to one collective when there were operational disparities between the three sites.

He said the pay rise amounted to an average of 4.5 per cent across the board each year for a term of three years and that getting the three-year term was an important achievement.

"It means we can really start forward planning in a clear and proactive way, which is very difficult to do if you've got a 12 month agreement." 

Ms Harre said the dispute had been taxing on the workers and it would take a long time before trust was established with their employer.

"Less than a year after coming into New Zealand this company has provoked the biggest industrial dispute of our generation and it will take time to heal those wounds," she said.

"The company's conduct has been disgraceful to its workers over the last four weeks."

She said Progressive had brought "enormous damage" to its own bottom line and devastation to the bottom line of its distribution staff.

"They have had to concede on the one thing that they said they would not deliver in bargaining, and that is equal pay for equal work across the three sites."

Mr Hamnett said while it was concerning not having been able to deliver all its products to retailers, he was surprised how well businesses held up in support of the suppliers.

Progressive employed over 18,000 staff and in real terms the 500 or so workers in question was a small percentage. 

"They were more or less holding the other 18,000 to ransom. So I think you'll find the huge percentage of staff who don't work in the warehouses probably are saying it's about time they went back to work." 

Ms Harre said the workers would be pleased to get a pay cheque and pay rise next week.

"There will be some back pay in it for them and the company has agreed to forward an interest-free thousand dollar loan which will help them get back on their feet.

"It's a great victory for these workers and they can go back in with the head held high."

Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said Progressive had underestimated the huge level of public support and its tactics were cynical and brutal.

"Progressive pursued a deliberate strategy of starving into submission vulnerable workers who were using the proper legal processes to improve their wages.

"It has highlighted a fundamental weakness in our employment laws," Mr Wilson said.

Monday September 25, 2006

It was unsurprising that both the unions and the employer claimed victory when the supermarket distribution workers' dispute ended. Such is usually the case when high-stakes industrial relations struggles are resolved. Amid all the flannel, however, it was apparent that Progressive Enterprises had staved off the demand for a single nationwide collective agreement. And that this was not, contrary to the National Distribution Union's view, a matter of no significance.

This was never a dispute about rates of pay. At its core was Progressive's understandable determination to ensure that allowances for its distribution workers' labour reflected the disparities (in size, product range, automation and equipment) of its three warehouse sites. This impulse led the Australian company to react to its workers with the same sort of brusqueness that has typified its rocky relationship with suppliers since it took control of Progressive late last year. The 500-plus workers were locked out, the prelude to a month-long tussle.

Progressive's approach was undoubtedly rudimentary. The company's previous owner had offered, but not implemented, the opportunity for collective protection. In changing tack, the new owner, Woolworths Australia, happily took advantage of untested issues of procedure and good faith in employment relations law. It may also have thought the small number of workers, and their lack of muscle in the overall scheme of its supermarket operations, meant resistance would be shortlived. If so, it miscalculated. Unions, both at home and overseas, were quick to recognise an important principle was at stake. As keen as Progressive to place an ideological stake in the ground, they flocked to aid the workers.

The company was always an easy target for disparagement. Its hard line made it more so. The unions pointed to "a Goliath of an Australian company starving its workers to achieve what it wanted". Never, however, did they debate the nub of the dispute: the fact that if collective protection, either through multi-site or multi-employer agreement, is set in stone, employers are bound to the same wages and conditions. No longer could they differentiate on specific site conditions, such as those identified, quite logically, in Progressive's separate agreements, which meant workers in Palmerston North were paid about $1 an hour more than their Auckland counterparts, and about $2 more than Christchurch workers.

Nor could they impose rates that reflected the employment market in different regions. There could be no margin for Palmerston North in recognition of the smaller labour pool there. More than that, however, there could be no reward on the basis of individual enterprise, energy and productivity. The company is tied to a stifling and stunting collectivism.

On that point of principle, Progressive held firm. The formula for settlement is pay parity across the distribution centres within two years. But there is not one collective agreement for all three sites.

This is not, as the National Distribution Union contended, a national collective agreement in all but name. Indeed, the workers could face exactly the same situation in three years, when the agreement ends. The unions may lament also that, because legal action has been stopped, the

dispute has delivered nothing in terms of clarifying the bargaining parameters of industrial relations law.

In reality, this was not about an Australian company bullying its workforce. It was about the direction of industrial bargaining. To some degree, Progressive's distribution workers were pawns in that power play. In the end, they were entitled to feel in two minds about the outcome.

Tuesday October 24th 2006. 

Woolworths Australia chief executive Michael Luscombe has appointed Peter Smith to run its New Zealand operation as head office plots its move on The Warehouse.

Woolworths wholly owns Progressive Enterprises whose Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown outlets hold 43 per cent of the New Zealand supermarket sector.

Smith replaces Marty Hamnett who is returning to Australia for family reasons, after just six months running Progressive and fighting and settling a bitter industrial dispute with the National Distribution Union.

Hamnett said that the three-year term of the settlement gave Woolworths time to change its stock control processes that would mean significantly lower costs. He also played a big role bedding down a new system of negotiating prices from suppliers that the Food and Grocery Council

confirmed has created tensions in the industry.

Hamnett's previous role at Woolworths Australia was heading the "Big W" chain of general goods stores - Australia's counterpart to The Warehouse - which Woolworths is committed to establishing in New Zealand. 

But he declined to discuss his progress in bringing "Big W" to New Zealand or the status of Woolworths Australia's strategy for The Warehouse.

He said that access to large sites needed for Big W was "difficult but not impossible".

Maquarie Investments analyst Arthur Lim said that cost and time delays in finding sites was a factor in Woolworths' strategy in the current Warehouse stand-off. Buying The Warehouse would give Woolworths access to 85 sites either as Red Sheds or converted to Big Ws, he said. 

Hamnett declined to discuss what progress was made developing "Big W" in New Zealand.

He criticised media reports that he was being "drummed out of the country".

As you can see - lower prices means lower pay - is the non advertised catch cry. Bully tactic's and a total disregard for workers. Progressive(PEL) Woolworths has a huge staff turn over 56% and more. It also has a unnerving drive to drive out those nearing 18 years as this group nears the higher minimum adult wage. Any 15 year old is guaranteed a job at Woolworths, operations Management monitor every 15 minute working situation and this group is place in the largest volume/ production void. Makes business sense but is totally unethical - a soulless - morally bankrupt decision. 

In New Zealand this company has no social responsibility, no community involvement, - all profits are returned to Australia - this after Management have given themselves hefty bonuses!  

I would like to see a more balanced view given in Wikipedia on Woolworths. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworths_Limited 

The commercial strength means many communications organizations are intimated against presenting a balanced view. Hence a goliath approach from Woolworths, with clients, suppliers as well as employees.

After the lock out here in New Zealand many people are seeing them for what they are - bullies, aggressive and money hungry at any cost to any one and anything in their way. Others are just stuck and cannot see any way out. 

Your website is great - just wish we had more clarity as to this company here in New Zealand - with small towns fighting to retain their uniqueness. Employees developing a back bone - by joining the Union and not putting up with poor unethical employment practices - Management

need to develop a heart for the people they employ, the town and country they are trading in. Customers being given the best in food and not the food with the biggest margin! Happy employees do equal happy customers! The imbalance needs to be addressed. To me it starts at the top and filters down or else power is given to the ordinary man on the street.

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