oil

The government is warning consumers not to panic, as panic-buying of petrol has begun.

The strike of Unite members is against attacks on pensions, including closing the scheme to new entrants.

More information from Unite here.

We are publishing our response to a letter sent by a reader from Brazil (T), who asks our opinion about an article he received, from which we are publishing some extracts, and which covers the struggles and mobilizations of the workers against the state oil company "Petroleos de Venezuela" (PDVSA) last September, demanding better wages and contractual benefits.

570 workers have been striking for five weeks now. It seems as though the local authorities want to provoke a confrontation, as well as sending in more police and arresting the two men they have also issued 'inflammatory statements'. According to Mr Aouadi, a member of the union committee "They have even gone as far as to accuse us of vandalising our equipment, which is false"

From issue no. 17 of the Wildcat (UK) journal.

The strike action is in support of a claim by workers for increased salaries and for their benefits to be brought into line with those of other workers at the Officeof post and telecommunications (OPT). An inter-union grouping of CSIP, CSTP/FO, Otahi, A Tia I Mua called the strike and 60% of workers are observing it.Tikiphone shops are either closed or picketed.

Security forces kill a worker and wounded others
Security forces opened fire on workers and drivers in Bandar-e Daylam’s (Persian Gulf Port Daylam) custom, killing one worker and wounding a few others in November 5, 2006.

The 2001 strike of workers at Engen - the South African affiliate of the oil multinational Exxon.

The strike by over 900 divers has entered its third day, and reports have been made that management are harrassing and intimidating workers in a bid to undermine the strike. Workers have been receiving intimidating phone calls at home urging them to return to work and sign individual contracts, a classic tactic used to break solidarity between strikers.

The workers at Bapco oil refinery in Bahrain have threatened a 45 minute sit-in protest today if their demands for higher pay are not met.

Protesters from the Achuar Indian communities in the northern Peru forest have won an agreement for an Argentine oil drilling firm to stop dumping toxic waste into the rainforest. The Native Federation of the Corrientes River brought jungle operations of Pluspetrol Norte to a standstill, demanding a clean-up of the harmful waste produced by 30 years of drilling in the area.

A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell PLC said the seizures have forced oil production to be shut down at the platforms.

Officials, however, declined to say how much oil had been cut off after the platforms were attacked.

Introduction[1]

Following the conversion of the Royal Navy from coal in 1911 and the development of petro-chemical industries after WW2, oil became a militarily and economically important resource for the major imperialist powers.

Seven hundred Peruvians have occupied oil facilities in the rainforest territories of Loreto, on the border with Ecuador, halting production. After 30 years of drilling, protesters are demanding that steps be taken to stop the Argentinian company Pluspetrol from continuing to dump one million barrels of untreated toxic waste each day.

Reuters reported that striking oil workers in southern Iraq on Wednesday ended action that closed the main pipeline supplying Baghdad with refined oil products a day after they had won higher pay, a union leader said.

"We received a document from the ministry of oil. It is a document to increase our salaries and to pay us (a) share in seasonal profits," Hassan al-Asadi said.

The Iraqi regime’s decision comes in the wake of a series of anti-union measures, including the disbanding of the council of the lawyers’ union, freezing the writers’ union accounts and the September 2005 decree making all trade union activity illegal.

Banks, businesses, schools and offices shut while streets were virtually deserted as a result of industrial action aimed at forcing a reduction in the price of oil-based fuels and the quadrupling of wages, among other demands.

George Bush and his malleable sidekick, Tony Blair , have decreed that in their crusade to save the world (especially the USA and UK) from the far-reaching tentacles of terrorism - and heroin[ism] - Afghanistan must be tamed.

A translation of a statement released by the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra regarding strike action by workers at the Oil Transportation Company. More news and updates will follow shortly.

A one day strike took place on the 21/2/2006 organised by union members in the Oil Transport Company in Basra. The strike took place for the following reasons: