A-Infos (en) Australia, AnComFed: Picket Line - Why do anarchists focus on workplace organising? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

When I started organising my retail store in 2023, the place was a mess. 
---- Incident report after incident report of manual handling injuries. 
Two measly customer trollies to move heavy stock, one of them being 
broken. A horrific rat infestation. And only two of us were union 
members. Everyone at our site had felt the pang of pain in their back or 
shoulder from moving 20kg of weight, and we were definitely sick of 
inhaling rat piss. These were conditions management knew about and 
allowed to continue.

But by early 2024, things were changing. We started inviting more 
co-workers to union meetings to discuss their issues. People were fed up 
with the bosses. They were angry and ready to do something about it. 
Union density jumped to 83%, and we decided the first step would be 
electing Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs).

The bosses push back
The negotiation meeting with management was hostile. They flew in the 
General Manager from three states away and the head of HR scoffed at us 
over Zoom. I had never seen any of those head honchos before that 
meeting, despite having worked there for just shy of a decade. They were 
clearly anxious in the face of unionisation and wanted it quashed fast.

We were accused of 'coercing' members to join the union. Yet my 
coworkers remained staunch, even the less confrontational ones. They had 
all experienced what we were fighting against. And now we could put 
faces to the names. These were the people dismissing our emails about 
unsafe and disgusting conditions.

We watched management lie to our faces when they insisted that they do 
follow up on incident reports and maintenance requests in a timely 
manner. But we knew that we were the ones cleaning up rat shit and 
permanently breaking our bodies every day for minimum wage. Meanwhile, 
management sat there, in their shiny black shoes, claiming their 
processes were sufficient.

The tide turns
Undismayed, we fought and ultimately won two HSRs in our store. With 
this new power at our disposal, we demanded appropriate equipment and 
pest control. We became the first store in the country to get 
self-levelling trolleystwo of them. Perishables were relocated to deal 
with the rat problem. Within a few months, we had completely fixed the 
infestation, and since getting the trolleys, we've only had one manual 
handling injury.

Unionisation didn't dissipate the moment we got a few concessions, 
either. In 2025, a particularly egregious domestic violence 
advertisement started playing in stores, affecting staff and customers. 
But now we were organised. Our team was confident enough to shut it down 
within hours of it going live. We weren't subservient, complacent retail 
workers anymore. We were militant unionists.

The bottom line
We organise in retail because wherever bosses are able to cut costs to 
turn a profit, they will do so, even if it means putting employees in 
harm's way.

But most importantly, we organise because it's these little wins that 
change both ourselves and our co-workers. When ordinary workers fight to 
improve their labour conditions, we see firsthand that things don't have 
to stay the way they are. We can change the world.

We build militants by struggling collectively against the oppression we 
experience at work. It's this struggle that allows ordinary people to 
feel solidarity and to understand how the capitalist system exploits the 
working class. My coworkers who resisted alongside me no longer trust HR 
or management; they are now confident enough to fix things themselves 
through collective action. Some of my team members attended the 
Anarchist Political School, or went on to join trade unions in their 
next industry. Collective struggle is the best way to bring our 
co-workers into the struggle for revolution.

So, if you think unionising in a high-turnover and precarious industry 
is too hard, think again. We started with just two union members, 
including myself, in a reluctant and fragmented workplace, and ended 
with big wins and most coworkers in the union.

Alone, we're powerless, but united, revolutionary change is possible. 
So, get organising!

https://ancomfed.org/2026/04/why-do-anarchists-focus-on-workplace-organising/
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