World
Institutional
links
Welcome back on
26 -29 August,
ONS 2008
Bridging
the energy gap
is ONS 2006 theme,
from 22-25 August,
in Stavanger, Norway
Petroleumworld
Business
Partners:
Centre for
Global Energy
Studies
  |
Gabon faces nationwide oil strike: union
LIBREVILLE
Petroleumworld.com, Mar 31, 2008
An oil workers strike which has paralysed production at a Shell subsidiary in Gabon, west Africa, is set to become an industry-wide dispute, union officials warned Friday.
Industrial action at Shell's Gamba terminal has halted 60,000 barrels a day of crude production since the strike began on March 20, with another 30,000 barrels exported by France's Total Gabon and Perenco also on hold.
Now unions negotiating for staff at America's Marathon Oil, who account for a further 20,000 barrels per day, have issued a strike warning, calling for parent company employment contracts for intermediary staff, a union official said.
"We won't hesitate to use the only arms we have," a spokesman for the national petroleum workers union, Arnaud Engandji, told AFP.
The union's general secretary, Guy Roger Aurat, added that Shell must acknowledge workers' grievances, or the rest of the oil industry will be asked to come out also in support.
"Over the course of next week, we will launch advance notice of a sector-wide strike," said Aurat, whose body represents some 3,500 of the industry's 5,000 workers in the country.
Shell-Gabon workers -- who number around 800 -- have called for the heads of managing director Hans Bakker and his team, who they accuse of "harassment" in a dispute over hours and paid holidays.
"The problems at Shell-Gabon are the (same) problems facing everyone," added Aurat.
Story from AFP
AFP 28 2251 GMT 03 08
Copyright© 2008 respective author or news agency. All rights reserved.
We welcome the use of Petroleumworld™ stories by anyone provided it mentions Petroleumworld.com as the source. Other stories you have to get authorization by its authors.
Your feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best Viewed with IE 5.01+
Windows NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels