'It's on': Truckies warn Aussies to stock up on groceries amid strike threat
Australians have been warned to "stock up" on groceries, as truckies threaten to carry out protests against lockdowns, which could bring the country to a standstill.
According to social media posts, protests are planned across Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday, August 31.
In a video circulating on social media, a man encourages Australians to stock up and buy food “for the next week, or two” because supply chains to stores would be interrupted by the strikes.
“It’s on. The truckies are doing it,” a man says in a video distributed under the Twitter name Carla Muys.
“The truckies are going to shut down the country; what that means is you need to go shopping now, get what you can for the next week or two, load your fridge, freezers.
“The truckies are coming and they are going to pull this country down and we are all going to do it together and remove this s**t government.
“The Vets [war veterans] are in, the truckies are in, I’m in.”
The man went on to share his anti-vaccination views, calling it "poison."
"I'm willing to go to jail to save my country and children," he continues.
"Every government who bought into Pfizer, they know it is poison.
"If you want to do this, you have got to do this together as one."
Stems from 'frustration'
A NSW Police spokesman said they are aware of the planned protest.
“NSW Police will continue to conduct Operation STAY AT HOME to ensure compliance with the public health orders,” they told Yahoo News Australia.
Paul, a truck driver from Victoria, told 2GB’s Ben Fordham the protests "stems from frustration," including repeatedly applying for permits to travel between states and continuous Covid tests.
“At the end of the day there’s a lot of people who lost their job, we’ve worked through the whole Covid (crisis),” he said.
Striking over disputes with Toll
Thousands of transport workers are expected to strike on Friday over an employment dispute with operator Toll, citing the company's refusal to back down on proposals to cut overtime, and to use more cheap contractors as the reason behind the protests.
The Courier Mail reported around 1,300 Queensland truck drivers and 7,000 transport workers nationally will walk off the job for 24 hours, with the Transport Workers Union admitting it could be problematic for Queensland's supply chain.
If (Toll) had taken a reasonable approach, Queenslanders wouldn’t be facing huge disruptions to food and fuel supplies this weekend,” TWU Queensland Secretary and lead Toll negotiator Richard Olsen said.
“We hope that Toll will see sense and prevent any future action, because Toll workers with everything to lose have no choice but to use the only tool they have left to fight for their jobs – to withdraw their labour.”
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