International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) president Paddy Crumlin declared on Monday Australia’s Barrow Island a Port of Convenience due to Chevron’s history of what he described as “union-busting efforts in the offshore oil and gas sector”.
According to ITF, Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project off Australia’s north-west coast has blown out from USD 37 billion to USD 54 billion due to the company’s ongoing mismanagement.
But rather than take responsibility for its poor performance, parts of the company insist unions were to blame, said Mr Crumlin, who is also National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).
“Chevron continues to seek to exclude my union from an Australian island to export natural gas which belongs to all Australians,” Mr Crumlin told international unions at an ITF Conference in Perth, Australia.
Crumlin said that MUA reach out to Chevron on many occasions and that it had received assurance at a shareholder meeting in Midland, Texas, last year from Chevron C hief Executive John Watson that unions were not to blame for cost blowouts on the Gorgon project.
“Mr Watson said he had ‘no intention of blaming organised labour for cost overruns or delays at Gorgon’.
“Yet Chevron’s only meaningful response to date has been to sue the MUA for more than $20 million for nothing more than workers on the job ensuring that occupational health and safety standards are met.
The motion passed by the ITF Dockers Section in Perth “ condemns Chevron for its sustained campaign to undermine wages, conditions and workers’ rights in the corporation’s Western Australian operations and exploiting both Australian and foreign labour in its search for increased profits.
“The ITF stands in solidarity with Chevron workers seeking to join a union and collectively bargain and demands that Chevron cease its union-busting against the MUA and commits to entering into a long term and functional relationship with the MUA that respects Australian workers rights, wages and conditions and the MUA’s right to represent them.
“The ITF declares Barrow Island, an island 50 kilometres northwest off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, a Port of Convenience (POC) when the first shipment of LNG leaves the island and calls on all affiliates to request any company or operator that has an interaction with the designated Port of Convenience to review their existing contractual relationships/arrangements with this port and to provide active solidarity support to the MUA and its members by any and all available lawful means.”
A rally targeting offshore hydrocarbon corporation Chevron has taken place outside the New Zealand consulate in Perth this morning.
The protest was called by the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and ITF to “ alert the New Zealand public to the poor practices of Chevron, that have led to major disputes in the Australian offshore oil and gas industry and around the world.”
Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the presence of Chevron is not welcomed by New Zealand maritime workers.
““Our members work in this industry, we support responsible drilling with high safety standards, but we do not support companies that have a bad environmental record and anti-worker agenda entering our industry,” he said.