Chevron, the same giant US-based oil corporation that in 1993 named one of its supertankers the Condoleezza Rice, has imposed a "no-fly" rule to exclude a trade-union delegate from work on one of its gas exploration rigs off the coast of Western Australia.
See "attachment", below, for the coverage of this issue by the Sydney-based rank-and-file MUA "Vigilance Bulletin"
At the start of February, Bob Carnegie, MUA delegate on the Ensco 7500 rig, was due to return to the rig for another three weeks under the industry pattern of three-week "swings" – three weeks on the rig, working 12-hour days, then three weeks off. The labour-hire company employing Bob, Offshore Marine Services (OMS), told him that the rig owners, Ensco, did not want him back.
After industrial action in protest by MUA members on the rig, on 20-21 February, OMS and Ensco bosses finally explained that Chevron had put Bob Carnegie on a "no fly" list for the companies running air transport between the mainland and Barrow Island, near to the rig. OMS - an offshore vessel management and labour hire company which is part of the Skilled Group, Australia's biggest labour-hire company - has undertaken to find Bob Carnegie work elsewhere.
But that leaves the workers on the rig with a union delegate removed, and the whole industry with a precedent that union delegates can be removed without ever being formally sacked or even charged under a regular work-discipline procedure. That is not new for the industry world-wide. In the North Sea oilfields, off Britain, this sort of removal has become known to trade-unionists by an acronym, "NRB" (not required back). The offshore union, the Oil Industry Liaison Committee (now part of the RMT), has conducted some successful legal action against it (see the OILC magazine Blowout, summer 2007).
From the start OMS management had told the MUA that "Bob will remain on full pay and not be disadvantaged till this is finalised…" The effect, however, has been to get Bob removed from the rig – without any formal charges or complaints, without any formal warning, without any hearing prior to union-organised talks with OMS management on 18 February, and without any written communication of any sort.
The offshore oil and gas industry is a difficult and unusual one for union organisation, because of the labyrinth of contractors and sub-contractors, the large distances involved, and the unusual working patterns (so that on the Ensco 7500 rig, for example, half the workforce may be thousands of kilometres away from the rig, at home, in any particular week).
It is also an industry where strong union organisation would have huge power. It is a big and growing industry. Many of its unusual features are found in other growing industries. Unions need to develop new strategies for such industries.
On 1 February, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) had boasted victory over pay for seafarers employed in offshore oil and gas fields.
After limited industrial action and negotiations, labour hire company TMS agreed to a pay rises totalling 30% pay rise over an agreement period totalling five years - 8.5% from September 2009, 3.5% from 1 January 2010, 6% from 1 July 2010, 6% from 1 July 2011 and 6% from July 2012 – and a Project Allowance Bonus. Other labour hire companies are expected to agree similar rises.
Pay rises are important. But, as in every industry, building and defending union organisation, and establishing civilised conditions, are more important in the long term. The high pay can quickly melt away when inflation or adverse labour-market conditions set in. Union organisation and civilised conditions are more stable and far-reaching gains, and lay the basis for the bigger political and social changes we need. How much real value has high pay if a worker who stands up for his workmates can easily be victimised?
These general truths apply doubly to the offshore oil and gas industry. The capital costs there are huge and the workforces relatively small. Chevron pays Ensco $550,000 a day to hire the Ensco 7500 rig, but only about 135 people work on the rig at any one time. The whole multi-billion dollar Australian offshore oil and gas industry employs only thousands of workers.
Bosses can much more readily afford relatively high wage rates than in more labour-intensive industries, and anyway must calculate on offering relatively high rates to get people working continuously away from home for long periods.
Bob has been working on the rig only since December. In that time he dealt with four industrial issues as a union delegate. On each one, management soon felt they had no choice but to concede. Evidently they were worried that if they allow strong union organisation to take hold on the rig, they would face more issues on which they have no choice but to concede.
Bob helped win a $75 a day "hard laying" payment for all workers on the rig in recognition of excessive noise there. The MUA and the AWU, the other main union on the rig, trumpeted that victory. "This great show of unity, collectivism and solidarity has proven once again that workers united will never be defeated," said MUA national organiser Glen Williams.
Bob helped win three-week, rather than four-week, "swings" for the seafarers employed on the rig (other workers already had three weeks).
After three incidents of workers slipping or hurting themselves on the scaffolding they had to climb to enter extra Temporary Living Quarters (TLQ) on the rig, scaffolding which had not been erected or checked to Australian standards, Bob helped get a union ban on the scaffolding. Management backed down by way of moving Ensco permanent staff into the TLQ and accommodating seafarers elsewhere.
On 2 January Bob intervened when a worker was asked to do some painting from a ladder over two metres up without a proper work platform. The Offshore Installation Manager had previously inspected the site and agreed that work would not start without further examination. Management backed down when shown that Ensco's own company policy ruled out what they were doing.
At that point management started claiming that Bob was shouting at managers and had a "racist" hostility to Americans (because he had told American managers that Australian workers were proud of their history of union organisation and demanded that managers coming in from other countries respect it).
On 18 January Bob's "swing" ended, and he went off for three weeks at home. On 20 January he heard from other workers on the rig that there was talk of him being sacked. He immediately contacted union officials. Less than two weeks later Bob was told that there was no flight for him for the next three-week "swing".
In any other industry, a union delegate who was sacked would at least be on the spot, together with his or her day-to-day workmates. Bob could be removed when he was 5000 km away, and many of his regular workmates were also thousands of kilometres distant. He could also be removed without formally being "sacked" at all. He is still on Omsk's books as an employee. They "just" don't have work for him with Chevron and Ensco.
On the Ensco 7500 rig, at any given time there are about 30 OMS employees - maybe a dozen of them maritime workers and MUA members, others rig and catering people. There are about 60 workers employed by Ensco - supervisors, roustabouts, welders, crane operators… There are about 20 Chevron staff, mainly supervisors, some American. And there are about 25 workers, mostly specialised staff drawn from all round the world, with other subcontractors such as Halliburton.
Over the past decade, Australian liquefied natural gas exports have increased by 48 percent. A new LNG facility is being constructed on Barrow Island. Australia had 30 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves as of January 2009. Around 69 percent of the gas reserves are off the western coast. Exploration is expanding: Ensco 7500 is an exploration rig, moved to Australia from the Gulf of Mexico at the end of 2008.
The MUA directly organises only the few seafarers in the industry. A larger section of workers are members of the AWU and of the "MUA-AWU alliance", a special arrangement set up for the offshore industry.
The industry attracts a special sort of worker. Most workers would not even consider a job that took them far away from home, to work 12-hour shifts in remote conditions, for three weeks in every six. It will tend to attract people who value high pay above comfortable conditions, and often people with an individualist streak that makes them think they want nothing more than to look after themselves in a "free enterprise" economy.
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