Kuwait’s oil, gas workers plan to go on strike

KUWAIT, April 11 (Reuters) -- Thousands of workers at state-owned oil, gas and petrochemical companies in Kuwait will stage a strike from Sunday in protest at a government plan to cut some of their benefits and wages, the president of the oil and gas union said on Monday.

"The union finds itself obliged to take the difficult decision to escalate with this announcement of a general strike in all sectors (of oil and gas) starting on Sunday, April 17 at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT)," Saif al-Qahtani, head of the Oil and Petrochemical Industries Workers Confederation, told a news conference.

The union did not say how long the strike would last.

Production and exports would not be affected by the strike, a spokesman for Kuwait's national oil company Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KNPC), one of five state-owned companies that will be affected by the strike, said.

"If the strike happens, we do have a strategy in place to deal with this kind of action where extra staff will be used to run operations," said Khaled Al-Asousi, KNPC's deputy CEO for support services. He added that some oil facilities might be shut down temporarily.

Workers fear reduced salaries, benefits and layoffs will be part of a planned government overhaul of the payroll system in the public sector.

Strikes are fairly common among public sector workers in Kuwait -- one of the world's richest countries per capita -- unlike in other Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, where unions are banned.

The other companies where workers plan to join the strike are Kuwait Oil Co., Kuwait Oil Tanker co. Equate Petrochemical Industries Co. and Kuwait Gulf Oil Co.

OPEC-member Kuwait pumps 3 MMbpd of crude and has three refineries with a combined capacity of 930,000 bpd.