Jade Ingham, the assistant state secretary of the Queensland and Northern Territory branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, was at the union’s picket lines at the ferry terminals for the Gladstone LNG and Queensland Curtis LNG projects in Gladstone yesterday morning.

While Bechtel has accused union members of being abusive, including throwing rocks and spitting at cars, Ingham said the engineering giant was slinging some mud in the media to try and distract from the real issue at hand.

The Gladstone Observer also reported that some arrests were made at the protest site yesterday. Ingham told EnergyNewsBulletin he didn’t see this happen but some members got a little bit “overzealous” at the opportunity to take protected industrial action after years of “intimidation”

“After I left, I believe a couple of our guys got excited – that didn’t last long,” he said.

The union’s protected industrial action, which remains to be on an “indefinite” duration at this stage with strike action expected to continue into next week, is based on its campaign to switch its workers over to a roster of three weeks on and one week off.

Ingham said the existing Curtis Island arrangements, based on the enterprise agreement with Bechtel that expired in June, were the only four-and-one rosters left in Queensland.

“The four-and-one roster just destroys families,” he said.

“Statistics for fly-in fly-out workers for suicide, divorce rates etc., are atrocious. A big part of it is being away from home too long. And that’s well known in the industry. It’s why in fact that most projects are moving to shorter rosters.”

Bechtel’s revised EA, which introduces a three-and-one roster in the second half of 2017, will be voted on next week but Ingham expects it to be rejected.

“It’s an insult to say they have given a three-and-one roster to the workers because most of them, the overwhelming majority, will never ever see that roster,” he said.

The union official said he would not be surprised if Bechtel’s clients, the Santos-led Gladstone LNG JV, the BG-led Queensland Curtis LNG JV and the Origin-led Australia Pacific LNG, become involved at some stage.

“I think they have probably been sold a pup by Bechtel and Bechtel has underestimated their own workers,” he said.

“I am sure these companies will see reason and will play a role at some stage in this dispute.”

Ingham said their gas feeding the projects from the Surat Basin was all based either on three-and-one or even two-and-one rosters.

“So the gas companies are well aware of the issue, they have accepted in the upstream.”

Crane operators are participating in the strike – which could hurt construction schedules if the industrial action goes on for long enough.

“Everyone knows you can’t build a project without cranes so that’s going to have a fair degree of impact without question,” Ingham said

“The main impact that we are seeking is to change Bechtel’s mind.”

Bechtel has previously flagged locking out employees in regards to industrial action.

The engineering giant has not wanted to alter the existing schedules for construction of all three LNG projects which were all based around four-and-one rosters.

Three other unions are also planning ballots of their members over taking protected industrial action against Bechtel on Curtis Island.