Carolina Cooksey, President
Carolina has worked in the retail and fast food industry for over five years and is currently a union delegate at Better Read Than Dead. She was active in the landmark Better Read Than Dead campaign which secured the best retail agreement in Australia through direct action. Carolina has witnessed the collective power of workers firsthand and is passionate about encouraging younger workers like herself to participate in grassroots organising. Email Carolina: president@raffwu.org.au
Rhiannon Howard, Vice President
In Rhiannon’s six years in retail, she has worked as a sales assistant in the United States and Australia. Rhiannon’s involvement with RAFFWU began in 2021 when she and her fellow workers at Dangerfield engaged in a successful campaign demanding security and up-to-date safety protocols. Rhiannon is currently a union delegate at the Dangerfield Flinders Street store.
Rhiannon believes in the collective power that retail and fast-food workers hold together. Rhiannon is interested in helping younger and minority workers understand their power and rights in order to build safer and fairer workplaces. Rhiannon holds a Bachelor of Media and Communication (Cinema) and will soon undertake a Juris Doctor.
Loukas Kakogiannis, Secretary
Prior to starting at RAFFWU, Loukas worked at Woolworths for 9 years. As a delegate, he led a groundbreaking safety campaign calling upon Woolworths to put the safety of staff before profits, represented RAFFWU members in bargaining, and applied to terminate Woolworths’ dodgy SDA agreement that stripped billions of dollars in penalty rates. At RAFFWU, he organised the 2019 campaign at Better Read Than Dead bookstore that secured the best conditions in the retail sector, and the 2023 #Superstrike campaign which saw the first national strikes at supermarkets in Australian history. In recent years, he took on the role of National Industrial Officer where he provided expert advice and representation to members on issues from roster changes to unfair discipline, safety, underpayments, and more. Loukas is committed to ensuring RAFFWU delivers real fighting unionism that backs in member action every step of the way. Email Loukas: secretary@raffwu.org.au.
James Searle, Treasurer
James has over 10 years experience in retail and fast food including at Pizza Hut, First Choice Liquor, Vintage Cellars & BWS.
As a student activist, James led successful campaigns to restore funding to student union representation and welfare services and to return important facilities and amenities lost as a result of voluntary student unionism. In 2012, James fought for and won fair treatment and pay for casual workers and in 2015 James successfully fought to prevent the privatisation of a campus co-operative. Email James: treasurer@raffwu.org.au
Rose Gosper, Committee Member
Rose has worked in retail for over 15 years. She has worked for both small and large retailers, including roles at various print shops, Franklins Supermarket, and currently retail tile sales. Rose holds a Bachelor of Visual Communications.
Rose believes that the immense collective power of the retail and fast food workforce has long gone underutilised, allowing the erosion of workers rights. She is proud to be a part of a grassroots union that is uniting this workforce to fight back for the dignity and pay that they deserve. Email Rose: rgosper@raffwu.org.au
Liska Fell, Committee Member
Liska has worked at Apple for four years. As a delegate at Apple Charlestown she helped promote RAFFWU’s campaign for a better enterprise agreement with better pay and conditions for workers. She holds a Bachelor of Languages (Honours) in Chinese Translation. Liska has been inspired by the ability of union action to create historic change both in her workplace and others and believes that union membership is the key to ensuring workers are afforded their rights and to improving conditions for everyone.
Stephanie Wickham, Committee Member
Steph has worked in retail for almost 15 years; working in small family run businesses in nipaluna/Hobart, then to EB Games and Dangerfield/Princess Highway in naarm/Melbourne. She has been taking initiative as an organic leader in her formative years and is now a RAFFWU delegate for full time workers at Factory X. Steph is currently running the flagship Princess Highway store in Fitzroy. Steph holds a BA of Design Arts in Fashion and Costume from LCI Melbourne.
Steph is driven by diversity in the workplace and cultivates a thriving community space wherever she leads. She dismantles the typical “hierarchy” structure in her workspace and advocates a workplace free from the individual sales performance pressures and predatory rostering behaviours that a casualised workforce exploits. Steph is keenly interested in supporting workers new to joining RAFFWU and wishes to see the end of junior rates in the industry.
Allister Small, Committee Member
Allister (he/him) has worked in retail for 10 years (in both fashion retail and pet care) and joined RAFFWU in 2019. He has been involved with workplace organising and was elected as a delegate in May 2024 as well as Health and Safety Representative for his Designated Working Group. He believes we hold a lot of power as retail workers and that we saw that during the pandemic when we were forced to show up as essential workers despite us being paid award rates. Allister believes nothing is “too good” for the working class and that unskilled labour doesn’t exist.
Ally Bodnaruk, Committee Member
Ally has worked in retail for fifteen years, the last nine with Harry Hartog/ Berkelouw Books. She joined RAFFWU in 2024 to help her fellow workers campaign for better working conditions and is a delegate for full-time workers across the company. Taking steps to improve her workplace for herself and her colleagues with RAFFWU has been an incredibly rewarding experience and is one that Ally wants all retail and fast food workers to have.
Em Bleby, Committee Member
Em has been a retail worker for 7 years in both South Australia and Victoria. Em has been a key player in unionising the Aesop workforce in Melbourne. They have helped organise the workforce, and represented their co-workers in Enterprise bargaining meetings, which seek to ensure a liveable wage, respect and dignity from the company, and transparency in. They are currently studying a Bachelor of Law. Em believes that a fair workplace is one that is inclusive, accessible, and protective of marginalised people.
Ashley Pardey, Committee Member
Ashley has spent over 25 years in Australian retail, starting with a school-based traineeship at Cornetts’ IGA in his hometown of Moura, and now working at Woolworths in Brisbane. His time on the shop floor has given him a first hand view of a worrying trend: big corporations are becoming less accountable and less trustworthy in how they treat their staff – their best assets!
This is why Ashley feels that the union movement is essential for workplace fairness in retail. Ashley joined RAFFWU in 2023, quickly became a Union Delegate, and immediately focused on recruiting new members and building collective power.
When Ashley isn’t working or delegating, you can find him busy with film projects around Brisbane, spending time with family and friends, or researching family history through genealogy and DNA.
Harry Millward, Committee Member
Harry has been a member of RAFFWU since early 2020 and wants to give back to the union using the experience he has gathered since then.
Harry cut his teeth in a national campaign at JB Hi-Fi during the COVID-19 pandemic “essential worker” era, in the RAFFWU Queer Caucus, and used that experience to help organise renters in the Renters And Housing Union (RAHU) as a member, delegate, assistant treasurer, and two-term secretary.
Harry is excited to join the RAFFWU committee and use all of that he has learned over the years to make sure we have the best fighting union we can.
Josh Reinecker, Committee Member
Josh has worked at Woolworths since 2001 and has been a proud RAFFWU member since 2017.
Appointed as a delegate in 2024, he played an active role in the Woolworths Enterprise Bargaining Agreement campaign – from protected industrial action and the Superstrike to serving on the bargaining team and giving evidence in the Federal Court case. He also gave evidence in Canberra to the Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Pricing, calling on Parliament to act on the exploitative practices of the supermarket duopoly.
Josh is committed to helping RAFFWU grow as a bold, democratic, and worker-led union that fights for fair pay and respect.
Roe Buchanan, Committee Member
Roe has been in the retail industry for 5 years, first joining RAFFWU in 2022 and has been a workplace delegate and on the bargaining committee at Jaycar fighting to secure fair pay and a living wage.
Roe believes that the only way to secure fair pay, fair conditions, and secure employment is an active and engaged worker-led organisation which will fight for workers’ rights and hold employers accountable to their obligations.
Roe is a proudly Queer unionist and believes that it is incumbent on all employers to provide a safe, respectful, and supportive workplace for all workers.
As a member of the committee, Roe will continue the fight for a living wage, strong worker protections, and a fairer go for all retail and fast food workers.
