As mediated negotiations proceeded on Monday, unions at Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Australia repeated their intention to begin strikes, prompting the business to express outrage and claim that employees were being unreasonable.
After unions claimed Chevron had broken promises and threatened to resume strikes at the Gorgon and Wheatstone sites, which produce around 6% of the world’s LNG, an in-principle agreement that had halted weeks of strikes in September came apart early this month.
The Fair Work Commission, Australia’s industrial judge, presided over three days of negotiations last week and requested the Offshore Alliance to renounce its strike plan while negotiations went on, according to Chevron. A union representative who wished to remain anonymous told Reuters that the parties were at odds on crucial issues and that Chevron would need to modify its stance to prevent strikes from breaking out again.
Two unions that make up the Offshore Alliance did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Chevron said that unions kept bringing up fresh problems in the conflict and were delaying resolution on existing topics until after member voting.
According to a social media post on Sunday, the Offshore Alliance stated it conducted a referendum over the weekend at Chevron’s request, and 91% of members confirmed a previous resolution to start strikes on October 19.
“Members have made it clear that they want Chevron to stop twisting the draft terms of our EBAs (enterprise bargaining agreements) and are prepared to ramp up PIA (protected industrial action) until our EBAs are properly sorted,” the message stated.
Chevron declared late on Sunday that it was “extremely disappointed” with the decision to uphold the strike plan, which was made in defiance of the arbitrator’s request.
“The union’s decision to ignore the recommendation … while discussions are continuing is very concerning, unreasonable and undermines the considerable progress made before Chevron requesting the Commission’s assistance last week,” a spokeswoman stated in an emailed statement.
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