gas

Bangladesh; life's a gas! $100 a month employee grabs 'bonus' of $145 million

Gas plant

The extent of the corruption discovered within the Bangladeshi gas supply industry is astonishing even the anti-corruption investigators (see earlier story).

The head of the state-owned Titas Gas Distribution Company has estimated that 80% of his employees (including, as he was obliged to admit, himself) are corrupt - investigators are trying to trace just how many millions have been siphoned off. It is claimed that "almost everyone in the company is a millionaire".

300-strong wildcat in Milford Haven ends

300 workers walked out in support of Omar Mohamed (pictured)

Workers at South Hook LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) have gone back to work following a 26-hour stoppage in support of a colleague who claims to have suffered from racial abuse on site.

The Western Telegraph reports:

Three hundred men working for Shaw stopped working at 10 am on Thursday, and marched on the offices of main contractors Chicago Bridge and Iron. The men came out in support of fellow worker, Omar Mohamed, who alleges that he has suffered racial harassment from workers from another company sub contracting to CB&I.

The struggle against Shell in the west of Ireland

Mass tresspass on refinery construction site

This report was written for the International of Anarchist Federations in March 2007. A Spanish language version is here.

There are, at a very conservative estimate, currently thirty local campaigns against unwanted hazardous developments in Ireland.

Rossport: a closer look.

Police patrol boats in Rossport

This article on the Shell to Sea campaign and on Rossport Solidarity Camp, was written in May 2006, for a publication which unfortunately did not see the light of day. It is a look at the campaign against the state and Shell’s “development” of a corner of the west of Ireland, situating it in an international context of environmental justice struggles.

This campaign against the plan to build an unprecedented high-pressure raw gas pipeline and refinery in Northwest Mayo is in its sixth year, but last spring took a turn towards popular protest and direct action and has shut down construction work.

LPG - a load of hot air

The Competition Commission has found evidence that huge monopolies dominating a major utility sector are taking advantage of the position - but apparently not enough to warrant action.

A report has found that the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) market is uncompetitive and could be ripping off vulnerable rural people, but has refused to suggest the breakup of controlling monopolies.

LPG is used to supply heating for housing not covered by the national gas grid, with people living in rural areas having gas periodically delivered and stored at their homes.

Shell to Sea: the struggle against the gas pipeline and refinery in Ireland - background and updates

Shell Erris

In Erris, a remote area on Ireland’s Western Atlantic coast a consortium of multinationals: Shell, Statoil and Marathon, supported by the Irish State, is proposing to build a dangerous, experimental raw gas pipeline and gas refinery. But they are being stopped...

This libcom.org news feature contains background information and updates on the struggle and related developments.

Background information
Pipeline and refinery

Russian gas crisis boost for the nuclear lobby

The gas-dispute between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month has been a gift to the British nuclear industry, and could not have come at a better time for the pro-nuclear forces that are working over-time to secure a new generation of nuclear reactors across Britain.

In early January, Russia restricted the supply of gas to its neighbour Ukraine. The Russian state gas company, Gazprom, suddenly increased the price of gas Ukraine was paying from the heavily subsidized rate of $50 per 1,000 cubic metres to the market rate of some $230 per 1,000 cubic metres . Not surprisingly, Ukraine refused to pay.

British gas engineers out on strike

British Gas engineers are out on the first of five strikes to protest against the closure of the companies final salary pension scheme to new entrants.

Further 24 hours strikes are planned for 19 and 21 December, and 6 and 9 January, although the engineers have agreed to provide emergency coverage to vulnerable customers - they are front-line engineers who mend people's boilers.

6,000 workers are taking part, all of whom are GMB members.

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