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Australians banned by oil giant Exxon at US AGM

Sacked workers from Exxon’s oil and gas facilities in Victoria were banned from speaking about their plight at the company’s global shareholders’ meeting in Dallas, Texas Wednesday night Australian time.

The workers, who have been fighting the company’s 30% pay cuts, have been campaigning without pay for 345 days now.

They travelled to Texas with the support of their unions (ETU, AMWU and AWU) to challenge Exxon’s leadership about the company’s industrial relations and tax practices. Exxon, which owns the Esso and Mobil brands, has not paid any corporate income tax in Australia since 2013, and won’t until at least 2021.

AMWU Delegate and fitter Troy Carter had prepared questions on the dispute and the risk of the ongoing industrial battle to Exxon’s Australian profits, only to be turned away at the door by Exxon security staff. Exxon is set to secure a majority of its worldwide gas supply from Australia reserves by the end of the next decade.

In letters issued to shareholders who had designated the workers as their proxies, Exxon global Vice President and Secretary Jeffrey J Woodbury told the shareholders that the workers wouldn’t be permitted entry to due the ongoing dispute in Longford, Victoria.

Proxies were given to the workers from Mary Sobecki, Chief Executive of Ohio-based charity The Needmor Fund, and Benedictine nun Sister Patricia Kirk OSB. Often social justice organisations hold shares in large companies to hold them to account on environmental, labour and human rights issues.

Mr Carter says he’s angry Exxon banned him and the workers from at the meeting, even though they travelled 14,500 kilometres and went through all the right channels to raise their questions.

“We have come to the other side of the world to tell these big bosses that what Exxon are doing to our community is wrong. I wanted to tell them that cutting our pay and starving us into submission is wrong. But they won’t even let me say that.”

“We were told by many people that when they walked in they spotted ‘AUSTRALIANS = BANNED’ written on the sign-in sheet. It’s unbelievable. What about freedom of speech?”

ETU Delegate and electrician Dane Coleman says the workers had genuine questions for shareholders about the risks of laying off an experienced maintenance workforce on such a significant project.

“We have decades of combined experience on those rigs. One mistake and it could all blow up – just like it did in 1998, taking lives. Exxon’s shareholders need to know their Australian management is risking everything for a few cents.”

During the heated AGM, the US Steel Workers Union asked about the dispute on the Australians’ behalf. Exxon global Chairman Darren Woods said he thought Exxon was “resolving the dispute with the Australians”. However, Exxon Australia Chairman Richard Owen is yet to call the unions in any effort to resolve the 345-day stoush.

ETU Secretary Troy Gray says the banning of decent Australian workers at the Dallas meeting will be the last straw for members of the public sick of multinationals treating Australia poorly.

“First they pay no tax here, then they sack our workers and cut their pay. Now they won’t even let Australians with voting rights speak up in the appropriate forum. Big business has too much power and Exxon are out of control.”

“Someone needs to grab this company by the scruff of the neck and throw them out of the country. They’ve overstayed their welcome.”

Following the fiery events surrounding the AGM, the unions have committed to escalate their campaign. The one-year anniversary is fast approaching of the workers fighting the wage cuts without pay.

“By the end of this campaign everyone in Australia will know Exxon for two things: cutting Australian wages, and paying no tax.” said Mr Gray.

The ETU and AMWU were also involved in the high-profile CUB dispute, where a consumer boycott led to the world’s biggest brewer backing down on pay cuts after months of campaigning.

Unions are considering leading a fresh boycott of Exxon’s 400+ 7-Eleven Mobil gas stations.

Quick facts about the dispute:

  • Exxon’s contractor UGL (CIMIC) won the contract for maintenance of Exxon’s Bass Strait onshore and offshore gas facilities
  • In June 2017 UGL had a workplace agreement made with 5 casual workers in Western Australia and told workers in Victoria they would have to sign up to it in order to keep their jobs
  • The agreement cuts wages by 30-40%, introduces unpaid stand-down periods during bad weather etc, and brings in an anti-family roster that rips workers away from home for weeks on end
  • UGL sacked the 230 workers who refused to sign the unrepresentative EBA
  • Exxon banned the striking workers from their old workplaces in December 2017
  • On 28 June hundreds of unionists will go to Longford, 3 hours from Melbourne to mark 1 year since Exxon sacked the workers and began their fight for fair wages and conditions

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