Chevron workers primed to strike

Unions reveal some Woodside workers will get more than $365,000 a year under new pay deal.

A Chevron LNG ship.

Unions have declared workers are “locked and loaded” to unleash industrial action against Chevron as they revealed a landmark deal at Woodside would deliver annual pay packets of $365,000 for some workers.

The Offshore Alliance, consisting of the Australian Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia, said 500 members across three of Chevron’s facilities backed industrial action.

Wheatstone platform LNG workers on Monday afternoon joined Gorgon and Wheatstone downstream employees in backing action. Union officials said notices would be served “shortly”, opening the way for industrial action from next week.

In a post on social media on Monday, the unions accused the company of waging a misguided ideological war against its West Coast workforce.

Attacking its decision to put an enterprise agreement to a vote of workers, the unions threatened to cost the company billions of dollars in revenue by jamming Chevron’s LNG exports.

“Chevron’s decision to put an enterprise agreement out to vote on the Gorgon and Wheatstone downstream facility is an act of industrial stupidity in light of the protected industrial action ballot results … supported by 98 per cent of the Gorgon and Wheatstone workforce and by 100 per cent of Offshore Alliance members who voted in the ballot,” they said.

According to the unions, Chevron’s demands included the right to unilaterally change rosters, the right to indiscriminately block employee progression and the right to “coerce” employees to work on other facilities.

Chevron is the sole operator in the WA gas fields without an ­enterprise agreement with its workforce, following a landmark agreement between Woodside and unions reached last week.