MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday February 9th, 2010
Imported steel will cost 2000 jobs at Gorgon project
The announcement that Chevron intends to import 25 000 tonnes of steel for the Gorgon
Project in Western Australia means an opportunity for 2000 jobs including 300
apprenticeships will be lost.
The Manufacturing Alliance today expressed outrage at the lack of action from the state and
federal government to ensure the Australian bid for the work was successful.
“This is a significant setback for Australian industry and a major lost opportunity to deliver a
real boost to local industry and literally thousands of jobs”, said Australian Manufacturing
Workers’ Union National Secretary, Dave Oliver.
“We should not allow steel of this volume to be imported while Australian workshops sit idle.
The next resources boom will not benefit Australians if we allow companies to source so
much work from overseas.”
Australian Workers Union National Secretary, Paul Howes, said that other governments
around the world would not allow such a significant project to import such huge amounts of
content when it could be sourced locally.
“It is a major failing for a project of this size to go ahead without conditions on local content
and for so many job opportunities to be lost.”
The Manufacturing Alliance called for upcoming projects to have much stricter conditions,
including guarantees on local content.
For more information, please call Dave Oliver on 0419 289 261 or Tim Chapman
on 0418 660 810
NEWS 
