Australian union the Offshore Alliance (OA) has announced it will undertake rolling strikes for two more weeks from 14 September, in a bid to pressure Chevron Australia to agree a pay and conditions deal for workers at its LNG plants and offshore platform.
"Lawyers have served Chevron with a further notice of protected industrial action (PIA) which will commence after our first seven days of PIA kicks off on 7 September," the OA said on 5 September.
The OA said work bans will escalate during the second week of PIA to 24 consecutive hour-long stoppages each day for 14 days, lasting from 14 September until 28 September. The strikes will impact Chevron's Western Australia facilities including the 8.9mn t/yr Wheatstone LNG, 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG and Wheatstone gas platform.
The OA and Chevron met on 4 September for talks on an enterprise agreement for downstream workers at Gorgon LNG and Wheatstone, mediated by Australia's Fair Work Commission (FWC). The meetings, designed to narrow the issues and conciliate an outcome for an enterprise agreement, are scheduled to continue daily until 8 September but talks have been unsuccessful so far.
Chevron has now filed an intractable bargaining declaration regarding enterprise agreement negotiations for Wheatstone offshore platform workers, the OA said. If the declaration is allowed, the FWC will rule on an enterprise agreement for the staff. The FWC must be satisfied that there is no reasonable prospect of an agreement being reached before the declaration is made.
The OA has organised staff at several of Australia's LNG projects and negotiated enterprise agreements with all but Chevron, most recently reaching a deal with Australian independent Woodside Energy on 24 August.
Staff at Wheatstone and Gorgon LNG rejected a company-proposed enterprise agreement on 1 September, after the OA said on 28 August it would commence rolling strike action from 7 September.
Uncertainty surrounding the impact of the strikes has led to rising spot LNG prices on Asian and European markets, with tensions between the union and Chevron leading sellers to keep their offers relatively high.
Chevron declined to comment on the implications the strikes will have on production. "We will continue to work through the bargaining process as we seek outcomes that are in the interests of both employees and the company," a spokesman said on 5 September. "We will also continue to take steps to maintain safe and reliable operations in the event of disruption at our facilities."
Chevron has also not been communicating with Asian LNG importers with term offtakes from both the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG facilities regarding potential disruptions to their term deliveries.
