Online at: http://politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/4551/1/227/

Iraqi Workers Form Unions Despite Violence, Obstacles

By James Parks

Archives - Dates and Topics

2006 – online

November – December 2006

Dec. 11 – Dec. 17 click here for related stories: labor movement

12-13-06, 9:28 am

This week (Dec. 6), 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 [for so many years]. 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.

Workers trying to join unions also face serious legal obstacles:

* The 1987 law imposed by Hussein banning most union membership has not been repealed. The law prohibits public sector workers—a large majority of Iraqi workers. Most of the union organizing is in the oil, construction, transportation and health industries.

“We are free to organize,” Muhsin says, “but the legal structure does not allow us to build and go forward. We cannot collect dues. That is a breach of our fundamental rights.”

Delegates to the AFL-CIO’s 25th Constitutional Convention in Chicago adopted a resolution that “supports the brave men and women deployed in Iraq” who “deserve a commitment from our country’s leaders to bring them home rapidly.” The resolution addresses the needs of returning veterans and union members and emphasizes the commitment of the AFL-CIO to support Iraqi trade unionists.

Muhsin says such international solidarity is crucial.

Unions are about solidarity. We don’t see ourselves as any different [from workers in the United States]. We may have different environments, but we still face bad legislation and aggressive employers.

Johnson, editor of the Democratiya website and a reader in Social Science at England’s Edge Hill University, says the Iraqi union movement is the hope.

Delegates to the AFL-CIO’s 25th Constitutional Convention in Chicago adopted a resolution which “supports the brave men and women deployed in Iraq” who “deserve a commitment from our country’s leaders to bring them home rapidly.” The resolution addresses the needs of returning veterans and union members and emphasizes the commitment of the AFL-CIO to support Iraqi trade unionists.

If you want reconciliation, you find an organization like the unions that bring together people from every part of society.

The Solidarity Center has drafted a letter that you can cut and paste or use for talking points to send a letter to your members of Congress urging them to take action on the severe workers’ rights abuses and anti-democratic restrictions on the rights of Iraqi trade unionists.

From AFL-CIO Now