6-15-05, 9:35am

Iraqi unionists are overcoming tough obstacles—including security issues, high unemployment and a lack of strong workers’ rights laws—to rebuild the nation’s union movement, Iraqi union leaders say.

“Our fundamental goal is a progressive, modern, civilized labor law that guarantees workers’ rights,” says Falah Alwan, president of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions of Iraq. “We have an incredible opportunity to build a progressive, independent labor movement that could be a model for the entire Middle East.” “We have modest and simple resources yet an iron will to re-build our labor movement,” said Adnan Rashed, an executive officer and leader of the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metals Workers of the Iraqi Federation of Workers’ Trade Unions (IFTU).

Alwan, Rashed and four other Iraqi trade union leaders spoke June 13 at the AFL-CIO and will meet with federation President John Sweeney on June 15. The AFL-CIO, affiliated unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) are assisting Iraqi unions in building an effective union movement while trying to create a secure peace under very difficult and complicated circumstances.

Unions Seek Increased Role for Women Workers

The new laws must be based on internationally recognized labor standards, such as the freedom to join a union, says Abed Sekhi, a member of the IFTU executive council and a member of the Agricultural Workers’ Union. Iraq’s union leaders also plan to help ensure a bigger role in the economy for working women, who make up 60 percent of the workforce, he says. Unemployment is high, especially among women, Alwan says. Women play a limited role in the Iraqi union movement, he says, but they must be included if the nation is to throw off the repressive conditions of the previous regime.

Iraq had a thriving union movement several decades ago, but many unions were forced underground in 1987 when former dictator Saddam Hussein outlawed unions representing public-sector workers, who made up 80 percent of the nation’s workforce. Some public-sector unions re-emerged in 2003 after the U.S. invasion. Unions that remained in the private sector were government fronts and oppressed workers, says Alwan. “So we are starting from zero due to a lack of a real trade union culture.”

Workers in Iraq face many of the same issues as workers in other parts of the world, but addressing those issues is complicated by the chaotic situation in the country and the lack of security, the leaders say. Alwan, Rashed and Sekhi and three other Iraqi leaders say Iraqis must be able to build their own institutions and they expressed a desire for a rapid U.S. troop withdrawal, offering a variety of conditions needed that must be in place before they believe U.S. troops should depart.

Iraqi Unions Fighting Privatization of Nation’s Oil Industry

Key issues for Iraqi workers include wages, poor working conditions, lack of safety and health protections and the threat of privatization of the nation’s oil industry, says Hassan Juma’a Awad Al Asade, chief of the executive bureau of the General Union of Oil Workers (GUOW) in Basra.

“Since the re-establishment of our union in 2003, we immediately fought for and got better wages for our members yet the road is still long in terms of meeting the majority of our demands for better working conditions,” said Faleh Abbood Umara, general secretary, GUOW-Basra. All the leaders agree international solidarity is crucial to their success in building an effective Iraqi union movement. “We can’t do this alone,” Alwan says. “We’re all in the same situation and we need your support and solidarity.”

From AFL-CIO