Focus: Offshore Workers Challenge Chevron's Offshore Tax: A $10B Win for Australia & Wins for Workers

Abstract

6 | International Union Rights | 25/1 FOCUS | TAX AND TRADE UNION RIGHTS Offshore Workers Challenge Chevron’s Offshore Tax: A $10B Win for Australia & Wins for Workers An international coalition of unions recently established a new centre for corporate tax accountability. International research will help unions better campaign on corporate tax issues To fight back against a frontal assault on labour standards in Australia, the ITF took on Chevron, the US-based global oil giant. The ITF’s Chevron campaign has been a huge success and should be a lesson for global unions. Unions need to avoid the temptation to bunker down and fight for a shrinking number of members. If unions are going to succeed in turning the tide against a weakening labour movement and growing corporate dominance, we need to adopt new strategies and new tactics that will also help organise and win for new members. The global trade union movement must expand our fight against capital and directly challenge corporate power beyond the shopfloor. Every dollar in tax avoided by multinationals is making inequality worse. It is a theft from our children’s schools, our hospitals, care and dignity for our elders, our communities and other essential public services that workers rely on everyday. Along with actions by the Australian Tax Office (ATO), the ITF’s efforts have helped the Australian government collect an estimated one billion in back taxes from Chevron. The Australian government has predicted that new tax rules -resulting from a major court victory by the ATO against Chevron- will bring in over $10 billion in additional tax revenue from Chevron and other multinationals over the next decade. The ITF has led the way globally in teaching one of the world’s largest and most agressive multinationals that attacking workers and ignoring unions can have serious and costly consequences far removed from any industrial disputes. As a consequence of the ITF’s campaign, corporate tax dodging continues to be a major political and public issue in Australia and even the current conservative government has been forced to take action. Chevron, Offshore Labour Standards & Maritime Unions Chevron and other companies have operated in Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry for decades and have had positive working relationships with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and other unions. In 2009, when Chevron began the constructing the massive Gorgon project off the coast of Western Australia things changed. Chevron and it’s contractors refused to engage in any meaningful dialogue with unions, employed exploited foreign workers and dramatically undercut existing wages and conditions. Several actions were taken by the MUA, culminating in a strike in 2012 which shut down the project for 2 days. Chevron took the union to court. In 2014, federal judges ruled that the strike action was illegal. Chevron pursued the union through the courts and sought $20 million in damages1. The federal court proceedings over damages are still ongoing. Meanwhile, the MUA won a landmark high court decision in mid-2016 which ruled that offshore workers must be covered by Australia’s labour and immigration laws2. In mid-2017, Chevron reached a landmark settlement with the ATO to pay one billion in back taxes and will likely pay hundreds of millions in additional tax payments every year3. The huge tax payments should make Chevron and other multinationals think twice about taking on the MUA and other unions. The ITF: Stand Up, Fight Back! The ITF determined that Chevron’s refusal to engage with the union could not be left unchallenged and that traditional labour tactics alone would not be enough. In mid-2015, the ITF began work to share information about Chevron’s tax affairs in Australia and more broadly challenge the global oil gaint’s social license to operate. Chevron had another large offshore gas project and several other offshore projects were being developed. If Chevron -when confronted with a strong militant, well organised union- could respond this way in Australia then workers’ rights everywhere would be at risk. Other multinationals would be emboldened by Chevron’s approach. Through intensive research, strategic campaigning and working with a broad coalition, the ITF took the union fight where it could not...