DARWIN, June 15 -- For about 400 workers at one of Australia's largest gas projects, a tribunal ruling this week meant their strike, and the leverage that comes with it, stays intact. The Fair Work Commission rejected an attempt by the project's Japanese operator to shut the industrial action down, and in doing so declined to accept the argument big exporters reach for most often: that a stoppage would hurt the national economy.

The operator is Inpex, which runs the Ichthys liquefied natural gas project off the Northern Territory, a facility with capacity of more than 9.3 million tonnes a year. Inpex had asked the commission to suspend or terminate a strike in which workers are refusing to load cargoes, telling the tribunal the action th...