Iraqi Union Leaders Declare U.S. Policy Counterproductive

AS PART OF a two-week tour organized by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), a coalition of American labor unions opposed to the war on and occupation of Iraq, six Iraqi union leaders visited 20 major U.S. cities from June 10 to June 26. Their Washington, DC activities included a June 14 press conference, a June 12 speech at the Plymouth Congregational Church, and June 13 appearances at the Peace Cafe at Mimi's American Bistro and at George Washington University.

The six labor leaders represent three key Iraqi trade union organizations: the Iraqi Federation of Worker's Trade Unions (IFTU), the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI), and the General Union of Oil Workers, Basra (GUOW). While in the U.S. they met with AFL-CIO officials, members of Congress, African-American leaders, members of the media, union workers, students, policy analysts and the general public. The primary goal of the Iraqis and their tour organizers was to inform members of the U.S. labor movement and the American public about the difficult working conditions Iraqi workers and the labor movement face.

Falah Alwan, president of the FWCUI, told the Washington Report,"Even though Saddam Hussain is no longer in power, the United States and the new Iraqi government are enforcing his laws banning most unions. Iraqi union leaders still face intimidation, torture, arrest and death threats."

Falah Abood Umara, general secretary of the GUOW, which represents 23,000 workers, confirmed that many union leaders in Iraq have been "harassed, arrested for months without charge, and beaten by the occupation authorities. We receive death threats from both the occupiers and the insurgents.

"The U.S. views unions as an obstacle to their efforts to privatize all of Iraq's industrial sector, while the insurgents view our work in the oil fields as an act of compliance with the occupying forces," Umara explained. "So we are caught in between."

According to Abed Sekhi, IFTU executive counsel and member of the Agricultural Workers' Union, U.S. occupation forces arrested eight members of the IFTU's governing board last year. "Without any formal charges all eight IFTU members were kept in jail for more than one week," he said.

During their meeting with Congressmen John Conyers (D-MI), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), and Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX), the six leaders spoke of their unanimous desire to end the occupation of their country. "The oil sector, which is the most important industrial sector in Iraq, is facing serious challenges from the U.S. administration," Umara and his GUOW colleague Hassan Juma'a Awad Al Asade told the American legislators. Unemployment in Iraq stands at 55 percent nationwide, and in some areas is as high as 70 percent. Yet the U.S. administration is currently recruiting Asian workers to come and work in the oil fields, the labor leaders said.

Al Asade questioned the wisdom of the U.S. policy, which, he said, promotes discontent and unemployment."We, the Iraqi oil workers, who know our oil fields, have worked in the oil sector for many years and who are skilled at extracting oil with the most basic of tools, are told to stay home so that the Asian workers who are brought by plane in the hundreds can work our own fields," he complained. When the occupation forces entered Iraq the Halliburton subsidiary KRB brought 1,200 Asian workers to the Basra oil fields. At the time unemployment in Basra was almost 70 percent, Al Asade said.

The U.S. occupation authorities have slashed the base industrial wage of Iraqi workers to $35 a month, the labor leaders said. "In the meantime," Umara added, "the occupation authorities have allowed the prices for food, cooking and heating oil to skyrocket."

"The current U.S. policy in Iraq is counterproductive and stirs much anger and resentment among Iraqis," said Sekhi. "The U.S. efforts to lower workers' wages, quickly privatize public sector industries, outsource work to foreign laborers, and at the same time increase the cost of daily necessities breeds discontent."

The Iraqi labor leaders spoke of the hazardous security situation facing their countrymen, along with the lack of such basic services as health care, clean water and electricity. Workers in the large oil refineries and other factories work 13-hour shifts with no overtime pay. In several cities, and throughout the industrial and agricultural sector, Iraqi workers have gone on strike to correct grievances on the job and demand wage increases-only to be shot at by authorities.

The "U.S. administration intends to weaken the Iraqi labor unions and marginlize their efforts to represent the Iraqi worker," Al Asade concluded. "For privatization to succeed in Iraq, the U.S. occupation is conducting a systematic campaign to weaken labor unions either by enforcing Saddam Hussain's laws against labor, or by harassment, intimidation and threats."

______________________________________

For more information visit .

This article was originally published in the August 2005 edition of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. It is used here with permission.