AUSTRALIAN trade unionists vowed to win their “David v Goliath” battle with oil giants Exxon Mobil yesterday as their strike action nears 500 days.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) representative and striking worker Troy Carter told the Star the strike over massive pay cuts was “a win at all costs, a fight for humanity.”

Mr Carter was in Britain bringing the case of Exxon Mobil workers to a European audience, building support and solidarity for those who have been on strike for 482 days.

He explained how Exxon Mobil, along with its contractor UGL, sacked 230 offshore maintenance staff last July. 

The workers were offered their jobs back but on inferior terms and conditions, including a 30 per cent wage cut and anti-family shift rotas.

The changes affected workers across four sites and, although one workplace accepted the new contract, many others found new jobs. This left 55 workers to “stick it out.”

They maintain a constant rotating picket line of 15 workers 24-hours a day, seven days a week. This has continued despite intimidation, including private investigators taking photographs of them and a series of court orders banning inflatable rats, megaphones and scissor lifts.

As police escort buses of “scab workers” through the picket, Mr Carter said the capitalist state is mobilising against ordinary people and protecting big business.

Exxon Mobil has paid no corporate tax in Australia for the past three years despite making almost AD$25 billion in revenue over the same period.

“You have to pay tax, I have to pay tax. Why doesn't  the sixth biggest company in the world have to pay tax,” he blasted.

“This money would have paid for 16,000 nurses, six hospitals, aged care provision and 60,000 apprenticeships.”

But the government is siding with the bosses, arguing that the strikers are “essential workers” and trying to force them back to work. 

Mr Carter accused the Liberals of trying to “starve strikers into submission.”

“It’s destroying families. It’s really tough,” he said explaining the impact of the strike action.

But he said: “We can’t walk away. If we do, we will be fighting the same battle six months down the line with a new employer. This is a race to the bottom and we have to stop it.

“I can’t see other families suffering the way we are suffering,” he added.

Mr Carter remains confident of victory, saying: “We’ve not gone backwards since day one. We believe we can win this.”