Explainer: Worker disputes at Australian LNG producers roil global gas market

autotldr Bot , 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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SINGAPORE/SYDNEY, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Woodside Energy Group (WDS.AX) and U.S. major Chevron (CVX.N) are locked in a dispute over pay and job security with about 700 workers at four facilities in Australia that produce more than a tenth of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Woodside was “well off the pace on key bargaining issues including job security and remuneration,” said Offshore Alliance, which is negotiating with the company on workers’ behalf.

Woodside, however, reported “positive progress” a day after the talks, adding that the parties had reached in-principle agreement on some issues, without elaborating.

In a social media post on Tuesday, the Offshore Alliance said members at the Chevron sites would begin voting “over the next week”.

Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said a prolonged outage across the three plants simultaneously was unlikely, as the government would not want “Australia’s reputation for trade reliability to be tarnished.”

However, he added, “The LNG companies need to tread cautiously, given the support unions have from the Labor government, and this may not be a battle worth fighting too fiercely.”

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