Corrected: UPDATE 1-Australian union says protected industrial action begins on all three Inpex LNG facilities

INPEX

02/06/2026 24:16

Corrects paragraph 2 to remove reference to ETU

    June 2 (Reuters) - Australia's Offshore Alliance union said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that protected industrial action has begun on all three of Inpex's 1605.T Ichthys liquefied natural gas facilities in Australia.
The Offshore Alliance, comprising the Maritime Union of Australia and the Australian Workers' Union, said the action was taken after Fair Work Commission-facilitated bargaining failed to resolve key claims on pay and conditions.
"Whilst significant progress was made last week in FWC-facilitated bargaining with INPEX, they have fallen short on a number of fundamental claims," the union said in the post.
"A long way short, and our INPEX members have had enough."

    The group will keep escalating the industrial action until INPEX agrees to fair industrial outcomes, it added.
  
The union group said on May 18 that it had served the Japanese gas giant with a strike notice at the 9.3-million-metric-ton facility after talks over pay and conditions broke down.
In April, 326 of 346 union members voted to strike, pending six days of negotiations in May, as required by Australia's Fair Work Commission.
Strike action had been formally scheduled to begin on May 27 and 28, but the union group said on May 26 that it had pulled the action due to progress in bargaining.
Australia is Japan's largest LNG supplier, and the country is facing a possible supply crunch due to the Iran war.

 (Reporting by Rajasik  Mukherjee; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
 ((Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))