Consumers may face pickets lines at Esso petrol stations from March 15, if the dispute between Esso Malaysia Berhad and its in-house union is not resolved by then. The union is protesting against alleged "unjust termination" of staff arising from Esso's global merger with Mobile.

"After two months of picketing, the workers have decided to hit Esso where it hurts. We will be picketing at major Esso service stations, to alert customers of the company's unjust treatment of workers," said Syed Ibrahim, President of the Esso Production Incorporated Malaysia In-house Union.

"For a start, we will be returning our Esso Extreme Exchange Cards, as a strong signal that we will no longer patronise Esso," he added.

Union members have been picketing outside the Esso headquarters at KLCC since December last year. Forty-three retrenched union members received only 0.6 month's salary for each year of service, the minimum statutory requirement.



"Esso could find US$82 billion to buy Mobil, but they cannot seem to find the funds to provide decent retrenchment benefits for workers who have served them all these years," said Ng Suet Hoh, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress council member.

Another 58 non-union management employees have also filed a complaint under Section 20 of Industrial Relations Act 1967 for "termination without just cause".



"Currently we are waiting for the Human Resource Minister to intervene on our behalf, to come up with an amicable solution. Should he fail, we will ask MTUC to launch a national campaign to boycott Esso," Ng said. MTUC President Zainal Rampak had also agreed to throw the weight of the movement behind the boycott.

The merger of the two giants has created the world's largest oil company, but has resulted in 20,000 jobs lost worldwide. "Is this what globalisation is all about?" asked Ng. "Malaysian workers and consumers should not allow multinational giants to dictate terms to us. It's time we stand up."