Iraq oil workers: New labor law needed

BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Iraq's top oil workers' union has asked for action on a draft labor law, as called for in the constitution, in a letter to Iraq's labor minister.

This marks the year's first movement by workers in Iraq's most important sector to demand better working conditions; demands led to upheaval throughout 2007.

The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions asked the Iraqi government, in the letter to Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mahmud Muhammad Jawad al-Radi, to comply with the 2005 Constitution which called for a new labor law upholding the rights of workers to unionize.

A new labor law is one of the key demands of all of Iraq's unions. Despite the constitution calling for it, Iraqi legislators have not moved it forward. It also has not been given any urgency by the U.S. government, which provides both behind-the-scenes and public pressure on Iraq's government over laws it wants approved.

"After the collapse of the former regime, a group of labor activists reestablished the oil trade union in the oil companies in order to maintain the production and safeguard the employees' rights," IFOU President Hassan Jumaa Awad wrote in the letter, in which he explained the formation of the unions was done using international standards and under international supervision. He also called for "multiple federations and unions to cover various professions and industries," as a way to avoid the top-down structure of Saddam Hussein.

U.S. Labor Against the War, a coalition of top U.S. unions supporting Iraq's workers, issued a statement and an English translation of the IFOU letter.

"Iraq is a signatory to the (International Labor Organization) conventions … governing the right to organize, bargain and strike," the statement said.

"Saddam Hussein in 1987 instituted a law that banned all unions in public enterprises (most of the Iraqi economy. He established his own government-dominated labor federation that served as an instrument for controlling workers … the U.S. occupation authorities continued to enforce Saddam's law regarding labor rights," as have all subsequent governments in Iraq, the statement added.

The IFOU is an umbrella group representing tens of thousands of Iraq's oil workers. Most of the workers are in the oil capital of Basra, in the south, but workers have started organizing in other areas of the south and the north.

Last year Iraq's oil workers threatened and actually stopped production numerous times as it raised demands of improved working conditions and complaints over the draft oil law. At one point Iraqi forces surrounded the workers and arrest warrants were issued for leaders. Iraq's Oil Ministry officially banned communication with the unions.

Iraq's electricity, teachers and healthcare workers have also voiced complaints.