For the first time in its 147-year history, Queen Victoria Market fruit and vegetable traders went on strike on Tuesday.
The traders are unhappy about additional electricity and waste charges they say were previously included in stall fees and have accused the City of Melbourne and its market management company of financial mismanagement.
Peter Kaparis has been at Victoria Market for 36 years, and is now the only Greek selling fruit and vegetables.
“We’ve been negotiating with the QVM management over the last few weeks and they’re telling us that they’re going to implement these extra charges, whether we like it or not basically,” he told Neos Kosmos.
“There’s been a dramatic decline in fruiterers and the market at the moment is on its knees and I dare say that if these extra charges (electricity and waste) which they are already charging us for through our rent, it’ll send a few more to the wall.”
Kaparis is the only fruit and vegetable trader that’s left in A-Shed and said management’s idea of filling up A-shed is putting in food vans and everything else but fruit and vegetables.
Italian Australian trader Rocco Tripodi, whose wife is Greek Cypriot, told Neos Kosmos that there used to be over 60 fruit and vegetable traders, now that number is around 30.
He said losing shops affects the customer, not just the trader.
“You’ve got your oldies, the yiayia’s and papou’s who do their shopping there. You’ve got university students… the market is the right place for them not supermarkets,” he said.
“The market provides them with choice. They can choose. If they don’t like my bananas because they’re too green or two ripe or too expensive, they can go to another trader. You don’t get that in the supermarket. You don’t get that choice. We provide that choice. Don’t eliminate that choice.”
This new issue is just one of many that traders have been concerned about.
There is parking issues and construction at and around the market, which they say is deterring customers.
Escalating salaries are also an issue.
It’s reported that QVM spent nearly $7.5 million on salaries last year, about a third of its income. In comparison, South Melbourne Market spends 20 per cent of its income on salaries.
Kaparis and Tripodi describe it as the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.
They both pointed toward the QVM management not being down on ground level with the traders and accuse them of being “out of touch”.
“They really need to get a grip on what they’re doing. They’re running a market, they’re not running a corporate entity,” Tripodi said.
In the last decade, management has grown from 18 to 65 staff they said, and they sit on the second floor of the Lexus building rather than being on the premises.
Traders also face infringements for minor things like parking a forklift a little over the line or closing up 15 minutes earlier.
Which was the case for 88-year-old wholesaler Wing Chinn, who has operated at the market since 1947. He got infringed for leaving 15 minutes early.
One store also had their awning locked and chained up because they forgot to roll them at the end of the day.
With so many empty spots in the market now, the traders feel that it’s management’s responsibility to fill any shortfall with more traders, rather than “keep milking from the same cows”.
Neos Kosmos have reached out to QVM for comment but have not heard back.
