Woodside rejects union claims it is looking for ‘scab’ labour
Trade unions claim Chevron and Woodside Energy are seeking to source “scab” labour to ward off the risk that a strike leads to a cut in gas production in Western Australia, escalating tensions amid the brewing industrial action.
Woodside rejected the claims by the Offshore Alliance – comprising the Australian Workers’ Union and Maritime Union of Australia – while Chevron declined to comment.
Workers at Chevron’s LNG plant near Ashburton North are among those that will vote on industrial action.
It is understood Chevron may have told engineers with little or no operating experience that they may have to work on their remote offshore platforms, rather than in their usual offices. Sources said the California-headquartered company had also brought in supplementary visa workers from the US who will work in the Perth office.
Chevron said on Friday it was “taking steps to ensure safe and reliable operations are maintained in the event of disruptions” at its huge Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects, without giving any detail.
Woodside said last week it had “contingency plans to deal with challenges such as cyclones, pandemics and a range of other potential disruptions”, adding it hoped it would not be necessary to activate the plans. The next round of formal talks with unions is due on Tuesday.
Fears that the dispute over workers’ employment terms, rostering flexibility and job security would ratchet up into full-blown strike action that could devastate WA industrial production and further roil global gas markets drove an extraordinary spike in European gas prices last week.
In a Facebook post on the weekend, the Offshore Alliance said workers had been approached by the two companies to provide labour, but that workers were
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