WASHINGTON, January 5, 2005–The AFL-CIO today condemned the murder of Hadi Salih, the international secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), who was shot last night by assassins who broke into his Baghdad home. AFL-CIO President Sweeney said, 'Hadi was a courageous trade unionist fighting for Iraqi workers. He put aside all thoughts of his own personal safety, returned home even before the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. From exile, he actively supported an underground labor movement committed to organizing workers. He returned to Iraq as soon as it was possible to help make Iraq a better place to live and work. 'Like all trade unionists, Hadi believed in peaceful solutions to working people's problems. His commitment to rebuilding the trade union movement and a more democratic Iraq even under dangerous circumstances has cost him his life and thus a great loss for his family. He will be sorely missed by all of us who have met him and by the workers whom he valiantly fought for. Sadly, Iraq has now joined the list of countries where trade unionists live under the almost daily threat of violence and death, and Iraqi working people have lost someone who worked tirelessly on their behalf.'

On many occasions, Hadi Salih spoke out against the use of violence and terror in Iraq. Last month he participated in the ICFTU World Congress in Japan where he met President John Sweeney and other American trade unionists.

Hadi Salih, 56, was a former printing worker who helped found the IFTU last May. Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Hadi Salih was sentenced to death for his labor activism in 1969. But after five years in jail his sentence was commuted. After fleeing Iraq, Salih became a political refugee in Sweden but returned to Baghdad shortly after the war began to help rebuild the labor movement.