Companies & Finance

Pacific workers’ paradise

Wildcat looks into the muddied politics of labour unrest pulsating through Colombia’s oil and gas industry Wildcat looks into the muddied politics of labour unrest pulsating through Colombia’s oil and gas industry
By Anatoly Kurmanaev 30 August 2012 0 11869
Bogotá, capital of Colombia

What can you do as a large oil and gas company plagued by labour unrest? You can either settle with the workers’ representatives or factor industrial disruption into your business plan. But Pacific Rubiales, Colombia’s largest private oil company developing the country’s first LNG export terminal, has come up with a third way: invite another labour syndicate that does not advocate direct action to sign up members from the existing union.

Toronto-listed Pacific had turned the Rubiales field into Colombia’s largest source...