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May 10th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Truck drivers and their supporters have rallied outside Coles stores in Sydney, demanding that the retailer take responsibility for road safety for drivers.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) on Thursday launched co-ordinated protests at Coles outlets in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, saying big retailers’ business models are causing the deaths and injury of truck drivers.
“Coles have implemented a business model that is deliberately causing deaths and injuries on our roads,” said Michael Aird, assistant secretary of the union’s NSW branch.
“It’s the likes of Coles that are to blame for the deaths and injuries on our roads, and they’re the ones that need to be held accountable.”
The retailer had cut pay rates, slashed transport providers and forced services to be contracted out to operators that didn’t use appropriate standards, he said.
About 30 union members, retired drivers and their families gathered at Coles in Sydney’s CBD on Thursday, chanting “Coles, Coles, who’s to blame, pushing safety down the chain”.
The TWU says one in three truck drivers works for a major retailer like Coles, in an industry with a death rate more than 10 times the industrial average.
Retired driver Peter Cooley, who spent 44 years driving, said Coles didn’t care about the pressures on drivers.
“If you don’t break the law, you don’t have a job, it’s as simple as that,” he told AAP.
The protest came as the NSW Roads and Maritime Services levelled more than 1000 charges against executives of transport companies regarding tampering with speed limiters, overloading, and excessive speeds.
Coles said the TWU was making unsubstantiated claims.
“We’re disappointed the TWU continues to make unsubstantiated claims about our transport practices,” Coles spokesman Jim Cooper told AAP in a statement.
“We outsource our transport business to large and reputable providers, we take safe transport practices very seriously and in no way do our transport contracts force drivers into unsafe or illegal practices.”
He said that Coles requires its transport providers to comply with all road safety laws and regulations, and all Coles freight contracts include fatigue management programs.
“Coles is a co-founder of, and current signatory to, the Australian Logistics Councils Retail Code of Practice, and takes chain of responsibility very seriously as being core to its operating practices,” he said.
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