The Transport Workers Union is already preparing for strikes at three other major transport groups – Linfox,StarTrack and FedEx – that could further strain supplies as the union pushes for higher pay and less outsourcing across the industry.
But major retailers that rely on Toll for deliveries said the trucking group had contingency plans in place and they would work to ensure minimal disruption to customers.
Toll,the largest trucking company in the country,has offered its employees a 2 per cent annual wage rise on pay packets that average $95,000 a year and says it has reduced its use of casuals and contractors by 30 per cent over the past three years. The union wants outsourcing to lower-paid contractors restricted to no more than 30 per cent of Toll’s fleet.
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Strikes on this scale have not been seen for at least a decade in the trucking industry. They are unrelated to threats by some rogue truckersto strike or block routes on Tuesday over coronavirus testing rules and concerns about the possibility of mandatory vaccinations.
The TWUhad planned to unleash “industrial chaos” in 2020 through co-ordinated strikes in the road transport and aviation sectors but that plan was derailed by the COVID-19 outbreak. It forced the union to ditch itsplans for aviation and delay them for truckers until the consequences of the pandemic were better understood.
“The effects of the virus on road transport have become crystal clear:transport supply chains are pumping,they are fuelling bumper profits at entities like Amazon,” TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said.