Jera Energy's loading terminal in Australia. The Gorgon LNG Project refers to the large-scale gas fields, including Gorgon and Jansz, located off the northwestern coast of Western Australia, which produce 15.6 million tons of LNG annually.
Sept 8 (Reuters) – Workers at Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Australia went on strike on Friday after talks broke down without a deal, sending British and European gas prices surging.
The dispute is over wages and conditions at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone operations, which account for over 5% of global supply.
Chevron had been negotiating with the workers for weeks alongside Australia’s Woodside Energy, which had managed to avert the strikes last month after reaching a deal.
The workers are backed by the Offshore Alliance (OA) – which combines the Maritime Union of Australia and Australian Workers’ Union.
Here is a sequence of events leading up to the strike action:
| Date | Development |
| Aug. 9 | Workers at Woodside’s liquefied LNG facilities in Australia vote for industrial action. |
| Aug. 10 | Chevron and Woodside say they are holding talks with union to avert any potential action by the workers. |
| Aug. 11 | Australia’s labor regulator, the Fair Work Commission, allows workers’ union to hold a ballot of employees to decide if they wanted to make a decision on taking industrial action at Chevron’s Gorgon and downstream Wheatstone LNG facilities. |
| Aug. 15 | Negotiations between Chevron, Woodside Energy Group and Australian unions continue but a source with knowledge of the matter tells Reuters that the talks are unlikely to yield results for days. |
| Aug. 16 | Woodside says “positive progress” was being made on talks with a union alliance on disputes over the wages of workers. |
| Aug. 16 | The Offshore Alliance says during the negotiations Woodside was “well off the pace on key bargaining issues including job security and remuneration.” |
| Aug. 18 | Voting opens in Chevron’s facilities to let workers decide if they want to strike due to disputes over wages and working conditions. |
| Aug. 20 | Unions at Woodside’s North West Shelf offshore gas platforms announce plans to strike as early as Sept. 2. |
| Aug. 22 | Woodside CEO Meg O’Neil says the company has had “constructively addressed” several concerns of workers but said it also has a duty to shareholders to be able to run the business. |
| Aug. 23 | Woodside and unions meet for another round of talks to avoid the strikes. |
| Aug. 23 | Chevron’s Australian unit says it would increase domestic gas production capacity at its Wheatstone facility. |
| Aug. 24 | Woodside reaches an in-principle agreement with unions to avert strikes. |
| Aug. 24 | Workers at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone downstream facilities vote to allow unions to call for a strike if necessary. |
| Aug. 25 | Unions at Chevron’s LNG facilities in Australia warn that work stoppages could cost the U.S. energy major billions in exports if workers’ demands on wages and conditions were not met. |
| Aug. 28 | Workers at Chevron’s offshore Wheatstone facility grant unions the power to call strikes on their behalf. |
| Aug. 28 | Unions representing workers at Chevron’s two major Australian LNG complexes say that they will take industrial action from Sept. 7. |
| Aug. 29 | Chevron’s workers release details of industrial action including potential work stoppages of up to 10 hours. |
| Sept. 1 | Chevron workers reject a company pay and conditions offer. |
| Sept. 1 | The offshore alliance says no meetings have been scheduled between unions and Chevron. |
| Sept. 4 | Mediation talks to avert strikes at Chevron’s LNG facilities in Australia begin once again. |
| Sept. 5 | Chevron workers announce plans for total strikes from Sept. 14 if their demands were not met. |
| Sept. 5 | Some employees of Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG facility in Australia offer to work during industrial action in a bid to avert domestic supply disruptions, the Offshore alliance says. |
| Sept. 6 | Workers at Chevron’s LNG facilities agree to pause planned strike action for one day until Sept. 8. |
| Sept. 7 | Chevron’s LNG workers agree to delay the strike until 1 p.m. local time in Perth (0500 GMT) on Sept. 8 from the earlier scheduled start at 6 a.m. in Perth. |
| Sept. 8 | Workers at Chevron’s LNG project begin strike as talks between the company and the unions fail to yield any results. |
(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023.
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