Iraqi Oil Workers On Strike

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23290

Iraqi Oil Workers On Strike
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2007-06-04 17:46. Media

Workers from the Iraqi Pipelines Company in Basra are on strike today.

Workers began the strike at 6.30 this morning by shutting two 14" pipelines carrying oil and gas products inside Iraq.

The strike is over unfulfilled demands tabled by the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) - of which the Iraqi Pipelines Union is a member - to Prime Minister Maliki on May 16th 2007. The 16 demands focus on improved working conditions, pay, land for homes, a reduction in the national price of fuel and crucially, inclusion in the Oil Law drafting process.

Prime Minister Maliki agreed to the Federation's demands and established a committee comprised of Ministry of Oil, IFOU and Southern Oil Company representatives to implement the demands.

Strike leaders say, if the government does not implement the agreement, the 48" crude pipeline to Baghdad will be shut.

[whistle]

1. Southern Oil Company, who exactly are they?

...from back after the invasion and the war violence and occupations which followed including the near devastation of Fullujah Iraq, this letter of appeal was filed by the Southern Oil Company Union leaders:

<snip>
Letter to trade unionists and anti-war groups
12 November 2004

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Appeal on behalf of the Southern Oil Company Union, Basra

In the aftermath of the brutal US-led assault on Fallujah, there can be little doubt that the occupation is bringing grief and suffering to huge numbers of Iraqis. It must be brought to an end.

Since the spring of 2004, Iraq Occupation Focus has been campaigning to get UK troops out of Iraq. As a service to the wider anti-war movement, we produce a free fortnightly e-newsletter to help keep people informed about the realities of the occupation. We have organised a number of well attended public meetings and will be hosting a major international teach-in on 5th December on the subject of ‘Occupation and Resistance in Iraq’ (see enclosed leaflet). Following this we have organised a nation-wide tour for two of our guests – US ex-servicemen now running anti-war groups for military families.

But whilst campaigning against the occupation is our priority, we also feel we have a duty of solidarity towards those on the receiving end of the US-UK assault on Iraq. Daily life is a living hell for millions of Iraqis, with shortages of electricity and clean drinking water, the spread of disease and unemployment running at 60-70%. Iraq Occupation Focus is a broad group composed of individual activists from many backgrounds. Many of us are trades unionists, and as such we want to do what we can to help those rebuilding the tradition of trade unionism in Iraq under appalling conditions.

That’s why we’re writing to you today. The Southern Oil Company Trade Union is at the forefront of the fight against the free-market fundamentalism that the US has tried to usher into Iraq. Based in the UK-occupied southern zone around Basra, the SOCU is the largest affiliate of the newly founded Basra Oil Union which represents in total around 30,000 oil sector workers.

SOCU represents the best traditions of independent trade unionism. After having physically expelled many of their Baathist managers, SOCU members began autonomous reconstruction of oil facilities which had been destroyed during the war. When the occupation authorities imposed what amounted to poverty wages on the oil industry, they threatened strike action and won an increase.

SOCU stresses its political independence, both from the US-appointed Iraqi Interim Government and from all political parties. It was central to the shutdown of oil exports in protest at the siege of Najaf in August. It is also battling to prevent the wholesale privatisation of Iraq. That’s why it now needs the solidarity of western trade unionists. And it needs that solidarity to take practical form. In particular, it needs money to continue the basic tasks of workplace organising and workers’ representation.

We hope that you will be able either to organise a collection in your workplace for the SOCU or pass the motion that we’ve enclosed and make a donation from your branch or trades council funds. We also hope that in doing so, you will consider a donation to Iraq Occupation Focus as well, so that we can continue our campaign to expose the realities of the occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home now.

Yours fraternally,



Ewa Jasiewicz
UK Contact for the Southern
Oil Company Union

James O’Nions
Iraq Occupation Focus




Notes:

1. Iraq Occupation Focus will endeavour to provide speakers for union branches, trades council meetings or anti-war groups to speak about the occupation or the SOCU. We cannot guarantee we will be able to do so as we run on an entirely volunteer basis, and engagements in London will be easier, but in all cases please contact us at [e-mail]

2. In the event that you contribute towards our appeal, please make cheques payable to ‘Iraq Occupation Focus’ and post them to PO Box 44680, London N16 7XX. Please ensure you explain how much of the money is for our appeal for SOCU, and how much is a contribution to Iraq Occupation Focus. Please also tell us if your organisation has passed a motion of affiliation to IOF.

3. You can find out more about the work of Iraq Occupation Focus by visiting our website at www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk. Whilst there, you can also sign up to receive our free e-newsletter, and look at back issues.

http://www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk/oilunion/

[mhatrw]

2. Related article

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_6072029?nclick_check=1

Iraqi unions fight to keep oil out of corporate hands
By David Bacon
Article Launched: 06/06/2007 01:32:14 AM PDT

The Bush administration calls the Iraq occupation an exercise in democracy building. Yet from the beginning, many of the Iraqis who want democracy most are treated as its enemies - Iraq's unions. Iraq has a long labor history. Union activists, banned and jailed under the British and its puppet monarchy, organized a labor movement that was the admiration of the Arab world when Iraq became independent after 1958. Saddam Hussein later drove its leaders underground, killing and jailing the ones he could catch.

When Saddam fell, Iraqi unionists came out of prison, up from underground and back from exile, determined to rebuild their labor movement. Miraculously, in the midst of war and bombings, they did. The oil workers union in the south is now one of the largest organizations in Iraq, with thousands of members on the rigs, pipelines and refineries. The electrical workers union is the first national labor organization headed by a woman, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein.

Together with other unions in railroads, hotels, ports, schools and factories, they've gone on strike, held elections, won wage increases, and made democracy a living reality. Yet the Bush administration, and the Baghdad government it controls, has outlawed collective bargaining, impounded union funds and turned its back (or worse) on a wave of assassinations of Iraqi union leaders.

President Bush doesn't believe what he preaches. He says he wants democracy, yet he will not accept the one political demand that unites Iraqis above all others: They want the country's oil (and its electrical power stations, ports and other key facilities) to remain in public hands. The fact that Iraqi unions are the strongest voice demanding this makes them anathema. Selling the oil off to large corporations is far more important to the Bush administration than a paper commitment to the democratic process.

[malaise]

3. Workers of the world

Unite. It's their oil. I support them.