Unions notify Woodside they can strike at Australia’s main gas rigs

SYDNEY, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Unions at Woodside Energy Group’s (WDS.AX) Offshore gas platforms off the North West Shelf announced plans on Sunday to attack on September 2, which could eventually disrupt shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the world’s top exporter Australia.

The strike threat intensifies a longstanding dispute between Woodside and workers over pay and conditions at its North West Shelf gas rigs, which fuel Australia’s largest LNG plant.

Unions in Australia are required by law to give companies seven working days’ notice before any industrial action, but they can choose to cancel any action before then.

The Offshore Alliance, which combines the Australian Maritime Union and Australian Workers Union, said in a Facebook post that it had “unanimously supported” giving Woodside a seven-working-day strike notice if its bargaining demands are not met. at the close of business on Wednesday. . That would mean a strike could start as soon as September 2.

“Woodside tried every tactic he could think of to avoid negotiating with his workers as a collective, but in the end the company couldn’t maintain the status quo it liked, one where you go what the company says,” said Brad Gandy, spokesman for the Offshore Alliance, in a statement.

“Offshore Alliance members don’t take industrial action lightly, but Woodside is really leaving them with little choice here.”

A Woodside spokesman declined to comment on Sunday’s update, referring to an earlier statement that the company “continues to engage actively and constructively in the negotiation process.”

Some 99% of Woodside workers gave unions permission to call a series of industrial actions, including work stoppages, after Australia’s industrial arbitrator, the Fair Work Commission, authorized a “protected industrial action “.

The Offshore Alliance also represents workers at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG facilities. Workers there began voting on Friday on whether to give unions permission to call the strike, with the first results to be published on Thursday.

The Woodside and Chevron facilities together supply around 10% of the global LNG market. Concerns about a strike have fueled volatility in gas prices in Europe on fears the move would fuel competition between Asian and European buyers for cargoes.

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.