People's Democracy

OIL/GAS WORKERS WORLD CONFERENCE

  Resolves To Intensify Fight Against Imperialist Onslaught

                                                                    Swadesh Dev Roye

THE call for the oil, gas and oil refinery workers and their trade unions all over the world now is to further widen and strengthen their unity to fight against the machinations of imperialist powers and organise united struggles against the onslaught of multinational corporations (MNCs). A recent conference of these unions has also decided to launch an international forum of oil industries trade unions for consolidating and broadening the cooperation and solidarity among the trade unions of oil industries worldwide.

THE CONFIGURATION OF THE CONFERENCE

The second world conference of oil, gas and oil refinery trade unions was held in Kolkata on March 8-10, four years after their first conference held in Paris on October 18-20, 1999. The international organising committee for the conference consisted of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (India), CGT National Union of Chemical Industries (France), Union of Mediterranean Oil Workers’ Organisations (Libya) and International Energy and Mines Organisation (France). As many as 124 delegates from different countries including India attended the conference.

Apart from the inaugural and valedictory sessions, there were seven working sessions in the conference. The subjects deliberated upon in the working sessions were (1) the energy reserves, refining and technology – the prospects and challenges; (2) pricing and marketing – a people-friendly initiative; (3) safety and environment in the industry and beyond; (4) worldwide struggles against monopoly capital led by MNCs and backed by imperialists; (5) resolutions on Iraq and Palestine; (6) trade union perception, initiatives and actions; and (7) adoption of a declaration.

While the inaugural and the concluding sessions were chaired by M K Pandhe (general secretary, CITU), the working sessions were chaired by eminent trade union leaders from India, France, Libya, Russia, Norway, Africa and Bangladesh. The theme papers were presented by Robert Ippoliti and Emmanuel William (France), S Dev Roye, Tapan Sen and Dipankar Mukherjee (India), Terje Nustad (Norway) and Mohammad Abusata (Libya). The resolutions on Iraq and Palestine were moved by M K Pandhe (India) and Mohd Alam (Bangladesh). The declaration of the conference was presented by Chittabrata Majumdar. CITU vice president Jyoti Basu delivered the inaugural speech while Ram Naik (union minister, petroleum and natural gas) addressed the inaugural session as the chief guest. Mohd Amin (minister of labour, government of West Bengal) delivered the valedictory address. An open session of oil workers and a cultural programme were also organised on the occasion

THE ISSUES IN FOCUS

The foremost issue related to reserves. Any development relating to production, availability and price of oil can shake the entire globe. Therefore it is dangerous for the world community to allow the bulk producing countries to act as reservoirs for the bulk consuming highly industrialised countries. At the same time the producing countries must not be allowed to hold the entire world to ransom by any misuse of their oil power. What is required is a balanced and mutually supportive approach in the operation of the oil sector for the greater interest of humanity, though this cannot be automatically expected of the MNC tycoons operating in the area. The working class and trade union movement in the industry can play a significant countervailing role in the matter.

The other question that prominently figured in the conference was that of machinations by US-led imperialist powers to keep the oil rich developing countries as primary exporters, instead of going in for value addition through expanded manufacturing base. The issues most vociferously voiced by the delegates were of the US war on Iraq and in Middle East, the US-backed genocide in Palestine, the US-engineered game of insurgencies and coups in Latin America.

MIND-BOGGLING ADVANCES

One of the most important features of the world oil industry is the peculiar situation concerning reserves and consumption. Oil and gas reserves are heavily concentrated in the Middle East. The distribution of proved oil reserves at the end of 2000 was --- Middle East 66 per cent, Central and South America 9 per cent, Africa 7 per cent, former USSR 6 per cent, North America 6 per cent, Asia-Pacific 4 per cent, and Europe 2 per cent (BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 50th edition). In recent years, a rising portion of oil production has come from offshore. Though oil production is growing year by year, the volume of new reserves discovered annually is shrinking (ILO sectoral activities programme). At the end of 2000, the distribution of proved natural gas reserves was as below --- former USSR 38 per cent, Middle East 35 per cent, Africa 7 per cent, Asia-Pacific 7 per cent, North America, Central and South America 5 per cent each, and Europe 3 per cent (BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 50th edition). While the overwhelming maximum reserves of oil and gas are in the developing countries, the consumption situation is altogether different. It is illustrative to note that 60 per cent of the world oil import is done only by seven industrialised countries, namely, the USA, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Republic of Korea and Spain.

Contrary to above noted reserves situation, the refining capacity situation is altogether different. In 1996, the share of world refinery capacity was as follows: North America 24.1 per cent, South and Central America 8.2 per cent, Europe 21.1 per cent, Middle East 7.1 per cent, Africa 3.7 per cent, and Asia-Pacific 22.6 per cent. It is said that the difference between capacity and output is a “crude measure of excess capacity.” Judged from this norms, the distribution of excess capacity throughout the world has been as follows: CIS countries 55 per cent, Central and South America 23 per cent, Africa 15 per cent, Europe 11 per cent, Asia-Pacific 11 per cent, North America 8 per cent, and Middle East only 3 per cent.

The other important factor is the mind-boggling advance in oil technology. The significant change in the drilling technology came with the arrival of 3D seismic imaging in the late 1980s and 1990s. Recently the E & P Company of Shell drilled an elaborate multi-directional well that  “twisted and turned its way to a giant pocket of oil 28,000 feet away from the Ursa platform in the Gulf of Mexico.” The ultra-deep-water platforms and the “next generation” seismic-imaging techniques, that allow reservoirs to be visualised on a screen in minutes rather than the months it would have taken a few years ago, has already been pressed into operation.  More advances, obviously, are in the offing. One ExxonMobil researcher has even declared that the oil detection technology being developed “will accurately locate hydrocarbons with 100 per cent certainty.”

THREATS TO THE WORLD

With their control on the technology and capital, the MNCs are making rapid inroads into the oil industry across the globe. However, it is important to note that overall operational cost is really reducing. According to an online oil technology journal, “Thanks largely to technological advances, the average finding and development cost of oil has fallen to a third of the 20 dollars a barrel it was two decades ago. Meanwhile, the average lifting cost has fallen by half, to less than US 4 dollars a barrel” (www.euro.ecb.int, December 19, 2001). Added to this is the onslaught of powerful mergers and acquisitions. Mega-mergers have created huge giant companies as ExxonMobile, Chevron Texaco, BP Amoco and TotalFinaElf. Merger is also providing cost rededication, but major part of the burden of cost reduction is put on the shoulders of the workers through increased workloads. With the further intensification of the grip of MNCs on the world oil industry, the cartel controlled pricing mechanism has already impacted the oil market. On the other hand, these merged oil companies are attaining monstrous monopoly scales.

While oil and gas reserves are mainly in the developing countries, the major refining capacities are with the developed capitalist countries that are also the major consumers. It is their oil MNCs that control the technology. The oil rich developing countries are the victims of imperialist machinations. Imperialist powers and the multinational corporations are in an unholy league. The former are desperate to establish political hegemony over the countries having the major oil reserves to ensure an assured supply to their countries and the latter are for whole-sole privatisation of oil industry so that they may grab the oil fields, go in for profit-quest operations on a global scale and quench their thirst for unlimited profits at the cost of the people of both the developed and developing countries.

The US war on Iraq and in the Middle East, the US backed Israeli massacre in Palestine, the US piloted insurgencies and coup conspiracies in Venezuela, the operation of US agents in Columbia, etc, are all supplementary and parallel initiatives alongside the machinations of neo-liberal imperialist globalisation. The neo-liberal imperialist globalisation wants to convert the workers into slaves and the workers’ organisations into non-entities in a bid to ultimately enslave mankind, to subordinate the people’s lives to the super profit motive of the corporates and MNCs. The imperialist offensive is designed to hasten this process by force, by brutally subduing any dissent and undermining the sovereignty of the nation states. The direction is towards recolonisation of the world under a few superpowers or, more appropriately, by a few corporate majors.

ATTACKS ON JOBS AND TU RIGHTS

Massive retrenchment and the consequent large scale reduction of employment in the oil sector has attained alarming proportions throughout the world.  There have been several waves of refinery closures. In the United States, about 100 small refineries closed in the early 1980s, and 29 closed between 1990 and 1997. In the European Community there was a capacity closure of 5 million barrels per day or about 30 per cent of peak 1977 capacity, between 1977 and 1985. There was a further 409,000 barrels per day capacity closure during an 18-months period in 1994-95. These closures have resulted in retrenchment of thousands of employees

The ILO has expressed concern at the retrenchment of workers arising out of mergers, acquisitions, privatisation, outsourcing and business restructuring that have been taking place in the oil industry. An ILO report notes that “tens of thousands of jobs have been cut in the past five years, mainly due to mega-mergers in the United States and Europe” (Para 1.1).  The onslaught of privatisation in oil and petroleum industries, particularly in the developing countries, is deepening. “The state-owned oil and gas companies have experienced a wave of privatisation and deregulation over the past decade” (1.1.3). The countries mentioned are Hungary, Austria, Spain, Argentina, Malaysia, Thailand, CIS countries.

“Privatisation always carries with it the threat of unemployment,” the ILO report notes. In the United States alone, employment in the oil and gas industries slumped in eight year from a peak of 1.65 million workers in 1982 to roughly 640,000. In Canada, 2,250 jobs were lost in 1998 when oil-drilling activity fell by 10 per cent. The situation was equally bleak in other regions, according to the ILO report. Between the years 1998-2000, employment in the Norwegian oil industry declined by 20 per cent. Outsourcing is contributing to retrenchment of workers in the oil industry. The ILO report has noted that of the 382,000 jobs in the UK offshore oil sector, 219,000 belong to the contract sector. 

Trade union rights have come under severe attack. The “governments in several oil and gas-producing countries have imposed restrictions on freedom of association”  (Para 2.1). The report goes on to say, “Non-observance of basic workers’ rights, such as freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, which had been an issue of concern at the previous meeting in 1998, still gave cause of concern.” Right to collective bargaining is coming under heavy attack forcing decentralisation of negotiations and prolonged tenure of the agreement, thereby imposing uncertainty on the question of future wage negotiations. The report notes, “ there is increasing flexibility in collective bargaining. Decentralisation is mainly driven by employers, who feel that it gives them room to manoeuvre in response to international competition and technical changes. Generally, decentralisation is disadvantageous to workers because they lose bargaining power” (Para 4.1).

DECLARATION OF THE CONFERENCE

The draft declaration was prepared by a committee with representatives from  India, France, Libya, Greece, Norway and IEMO, Paris. It was adopted by the conference with a slight modification. The declaration has incorporated the following demands in particular:

1)      Any act of aggression against Iraq, North Korea or any other country by the US-UK combine must stop forthwith.

2)      The right to work and end to unemployment.

3)      A right of energy to be accepted as human right in all countries.

4)      The workers’ right to establish and maintain unions of their own choice without any interference by governments or MNCs.

5)      An end to inequality in the living standards of people in developed and underdeveloped countries.

6)      The huge debt burden of developing countries must be written off.

7)      Unlawful blocades against Cuba, Iraq and Libya must be lifted immediately.

8)      An end to the Palestine crisis and formation of an independent Palestinian state, and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian land.

9)      End to cross-border terrorism in all countries including India, and peaceful solution to the problem in Kashmir through negotiations between India and Pakistan.

10.  Abolition of child labour.

11. Equal rights for men and women at work and end of all gender based discrimination.

In the end of the declaration, the conference reaffirmed its resolve to fight against all forms of racism, fascism and terrorism.

As for the to-be-launched international forum of oil industries trade unions for consolidating and broadening the cooperation and solidarity among the trade unions of oil industries worldwide, the details of its aims, specific activities and regulations etc will be framed in the first meeting of the forum to be held at the earliest.