On the morning of November 18, 350 Coles warehouse workers in Smeaton Grange, New South Wales began a rolling twenty-four-hour strike. Within hours, the supermarket giant responded by locking them out for a period of three months. At time of writing, the battle has lasted for over a month.

The lockout revolves around an automated “smart” warehouse being built by Coles. The company won’t allow long-serving workers to be redeployed to the new site. In response, the workers are seeking five weeks of redundancy pay for every year of service, capped at 104 weeks. This would mean that someone who has worked at Coles for more than twenty years would receive a maximum of two years’ pay once the site has been automated.

Australian supermarkets like Coles are on the front line of the latest wave of workplace automation, which is leading to job losses and site closures. The outcome of this battle will set an important precedent for other industries going through the same process.