OIL and gas workers in Australia have dismantled their picket line after 742 days, declaring victory in their monumental dispute with ExxonMobil and its maintenance subcontractor UGL.

Their successful struggle against the world’s sixth-biggest company has had a global impact.

Tax evasion worth billions of dollars by the energy giant has been exposed by the campaign, which played a major role in pressuring the government to increase taxation on resource companies.

This will lead the Australian public to receive an extra US$4 billion (£3.22 billion) in revenue, with more set to come.

The action, later becoming one of the longest in modern Australian history, began on June 22 2017 when a number of the 230 maintenance workers at ExxonMobil’s Esso subsidiary in Longford refused to accept a new contract from UGL.

The agreement slashed wages by 40 per cent, proposed gruelling and unsociable rotas and left workers unpaid if they had to stop work due to technical problems.

The sham contract had been agreed by just five people thousands of miles away in Western Australia, without the knowledge of local workers or unions.

Workers belonging to the Australian Workers’ Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Electrical Trades Union have now reached an agreement with ExxonMobil and UGL which will ensure that the sham contract is not used on any other site in Australia.

Unions have forced UGL to renegotiate for a union-ratified collective agreement where the sham agreement has been used to date.

The campaign has received solidarity and support from unions across Australia and all over the world, including from Unite and the Morning Star in Britain.

AMWU’s Troy Carter, a leading union rep in the dispute, visited Britain in 2018 to campaign for his members. He met Unite officials and members and attracted media attention, especially at the centre of Britain’s oil industry in Aberdeen, where he appeared for media and TV interviews to highlight the dispute.

Thanking trade unionists worldwide, Mr Carter said: “The power of the union is strongest when it is up against the biggest.

“ExxonMobil is one of the biggest companies in the world, yet it couldn’t get rid of a picket line of nine trade unionists. This is a very important moment for unionists worldwide in demonstrating that we are ready to stand up and fight multinational companies against union-busting.”

Unions successfully lobbied the government into reopening a senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance.

ExxonMobil was also forced to admit that it is owned by a shell company in the Netherlands, which is in turn owned by another company in the well-known tax haven of the Bahamas.

ExxonMobil has a further 575 registered shell companies on the islands.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: “Unite was proud to work with Troy when he came here in 2018. He did a fantastic job for his members giving interviews to the media and on TV, notably in Scotland where he met oil workers and officials thanks to Unite officer Tommy Campbell in Aberdeen.

“When the dispute reached 700 days the Morning Star did a major piece on the long-running dispute.

“Unite also reached out to companies connected with the dispute. International solidarity works! This small group of members are a credit to the global trade union movement and we are proud we stood shoulder to shoulder with them.”