Iraq Workers Form Unions Despite Violence, Obstacles

[Omaha Steve]

Run time: 01:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_401emUQk   Posted on YouTube: December 08, 2006 By YouTube Member: AFLCIONow Views on YouTube: 308   Posted on DU: December 12, 2006 By DU Member: Omaha Steve Views on DU: 624

 
http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/12/08/iraq-workers-form-unions-despite-violence-obstacles/

Iraqi Workers Form Unions Despite Violence, Obstacles

by James Parks, Dec 8, 2006

Windows Media | YouTube Video

This week, the Iraq Study Group issued a bipartisan report calling the situation in Iraq “grave and deteriorating,” with civilians killed daily and electricity, water and other basic infrastructure lacking.

To make matters worse, a new labor code that provides internationally recognized labor standards such as the freedom to join a union has been held up in Iraq’s assembly for a year and a half. And in August 2005, the Iraqi government imposed a new law, Decree 8750 that freezes the assets and controls all the monies of all trade unions in the country.Iraqi trade unionists are surviving under these conditions, as well as the same anti-union laws imposed by the deposed dictator.

Despite it all, they are fighting to make positive changes for Iraqi trade unionists and all workers, says Abdullah Muhsin (see video). But despite the chaos, unions are still organizing and gaining strength. Abdullah Muhsin, the international representative of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), says:

There are opportunities now to give the Iraqi people democratic freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of association. Before 2003, the labor movement was underground with just 300 members. Today there are 13 unions with more than 300,000 members and our brothers and sisters on Iraqi Kurdistan who number about 100,000 and the Iraqi teachers who are 200,000.

Muhsin and Alan Johnson are co-authors of Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Unions, a book about the life of Hadi Saleh, a prominent Iraqi union leader who was brutally tortured and murdered in January 2005 by enemies of democracy in Iraq.

Since 2003, dozens of trade union leaders, scholars and democracy activists have been assassinated and thousands more workers have been killed by extremists.

In commemoration of International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, the AFL-CIO and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center hosted a book signing and reception last night to highlight yet another aspect of situation in Iraq never discussed in the mainstream media: the lack of labor law and protection for workers in Iraq. The event included an exhibit of David Bacon’s photographs exposing the plight of workers in Iraq.

Muhsin says workers are caught in the crossfire between the insurgents and the Iraqi and U.S. soldiers. Iraq’s union movement is under attack by forces that do not want a democratic Iraq.

People are lining up to go to work and a crazy suicide bomber comes into the crowd and they all die. These people are not supporting any cause, any religion, any political agenda. They’re just trying to make a living.

The growth of Iraq’s union movement is nothing short of miraculous given the obstacles placed in its path. Muhsin says the biggest incentive may be the desire for a new society, free of violence and destruction:

Iraqis have never had the freedom to organize before. We are trying to shift the attitude. We have had nothing but destruction, death, misery and policy disasters . We are helping to build a society. We are not motivated by religion, ideology, class. We are not men and women. We look at ourselves as citizens and workers. We want a better society for workers and better wages.

FULL story at link above.

[mdmc]

1. k/r

nice sig too

[psychopomp]

2. People such as this gentleman and those who he represents

give me hope that we can withdraw from Iraq and Iraqis will be able to sort things out for themselves. I do believe that the Sunni/Shiite tensions will decrease with the US gone and Iraqis will find some sort of strategy for getting on with the matter of organizing their society (societies).