Chevron appeals for enforced arbitration as strikes threaten WA gas
Chevron will seek an enforced arbitration with unions at its two huge Western Australian LNG plants after tense negotiations collapsed, claiming weeks of escalating strikes pose a threat to the state’s gas supply.
The US energy giant will file an application in the Fair Work Commission on Monday for an intractable bargaining declaration for the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG workers, mirroring an application taken last week for the offshore Wheatstone gas platform, where labour costs would jump 49 per cent if the unions get their way.
Chevron’s Wheatstone LNG venture is a major supplier of gas to the Western Australian domestic market.
Between them, Gorgon and Wheatstone account for about 7 per cent of global LNG supply and 47 per cent of WA’s gas supply, but production is understood to be continuing unaffected so far, despite the stoppages which started on Friday.
However, the Offshore Alliance – comprising the Australian Workers’ Union and the Maritime Union of Australia – has advised they will ramp up action to 24 one-hour stoppages at Gorgon and Wheatstone starting on September 14 and continuing for two weeks.
A declaration of intractable bargaining uses so-far untested arbitration provisions inserted into the Fair Work Act by the Albanese government in June as a “circuit breaker” when there is no reasonable prospect of agreement.
A Chevron spokesman said: “Throughout the process to date, we’ve made generous, good faith offers and concessions in an effort to finalise enterprise agreements.
“Unfortunately, following numerous meetings and conciliation sessions with the Fair Work Commission no agreement has been reached as the unions are asking for terms significantly above the market.”
The spokesman said that while
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