Hundreds of people at Chevron’s liquefied natural gas plants in Western Australia halted work on Friday, an industrial action affecting three facilities that account for about 6 percent of the world’s supply of the essential fuel.
At 1 p.m. local time, about 500 employees began short work stoppages and bans on some types of work, after union negotiations over pay and working conditions stalled.
The stoppages are scheduled to continue until Thursday.
At that point, if the impasse remains, the unions will escalate with rolling strikes of up to 24 hours a day, for up to two weeks, according to the Offshore Alliance, a collaboration of two unions representing energy workers.
The labor action — at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone onshore processing plants and its Wheatstone offshore platform — had originally been scheduled to start on Thursday morning, but it was pushed back as Chevron and the unions attempted conciliation facilitated by a government agency.
Organizations:
Offshore Alliance, Chevron
Locations:
Western Australia