6-09-08, 3:03 pm

Despite kidnappings, murders, and other egregious human rights violations against union leaders and activists in Iraq, unions are continuing the fight to give Iraq's least powerful and least politically connected workers a voice in their own future.

Since 2003, dozens of union activists trying to build a new labor movement for Iraq have been kidnapped and killed. The most infamous instance was the brutal murder of international affairs representative Hadi Saleh, gunned down in Baghdad in January 2005. He had just returned with other Iraqi labor leaders from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) World Congress in Miyazaki, Japan, the first time Iraqi unions had ever participated in this gathering of the world’s trade unions. These assassinations and kidnappings are ongoing. No Iraqi labor federation is immune, and no Iraqi workplace is safe.

During the first few weeks of 2007, Iraqi workers and unions were increasingly targeted in attacks on their leaders and headquarters. By the end of January, at least three Iraqi union leaders were dead and scores more injured. On March 27, Najim Abd-Jasem, general secretary of the Mechanics Workers’ Union and a co-founder of the Iraqi Trade Union Federation (now the General Federation of Iraqi Workers), was kidnapped in Baghdad. His body was found three days later, showing clear signs of torture.

In spite of the constant threats to union leaders’ lives, as well as an unfriendly legal environment and the ongoing repression of independent unions, Iraqi unions are among the most active civil society organizations today. New, albeit small, labor organizations form regularly in virtually every sector of the economy, representing members at workplaces across Iraq.

Death Threats, Kidnappings, Murders, Friendly Fire

January 4, 2005: Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions international affairs representative Hadi Saleh is gunned down in Baghdad.

IFTU leaders in the north and south of the country are kidnapped.

The president and activist women leaders of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq receive death threats; one woman leader is forced to move after a sound bomb explodes in her home following her appearance on TV to talk about forming a local union of bank workers.

November 2005 and January 2006: Several rank-and-file trade unionists are killed in workplace violence.

January 2006: Alaa Issa Khalaf, executive board member of the Baghdad regional structure of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers, is assassinated.

January 2006: U.S. military accidentally shoot and kill two street sweepers — members of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers — in the Al Amil district of Baghdad, under the misapprehension that the workers are hiding an explosive device.

March 2006: Assassinations of Amir Ieefan, Construction Workers Union/Abu Ghraib; Sabbar Mhasin and Najm Mohsin, Agriculture and Irrigation Union; and Salih Jiad, Transport Union/Basrah

March 14, 2006: Suicide attacks and shootings in the Al Sadr district kill 58 died and injure 296 people, many on their way to work.

April 6, 2006: Hachim Jbara, vice president of the Iraqi Agriculture union, is kidnapped

April 27, 2006: Terrorists kidnap Thabet Hussein Ali, head of the General Trade Union for Health Sector Workers, as he leaves union headquarters in Baghdad's Al-Mansour neighborhood; Ali’s body is found the next day, riddled with gunshot wounds and showing evidence of brutal torture, including by an electric drill

FWCUI members who work at an electrical plant taken over by the U.S. military have been injured and killed in crossfire during insurgent attacks

June 18, 2006: Rasim Al Awadi, President of General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), condemns the recent assassination of sister Najah Selman Ahmed, an officer in the public service union

June 19, 2006: Radhi Majeed, of the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), is assassinated in the A'athamyya district in Baghdad

June 27, 2006: GFIW leader Shukri Mehdi Al Sheikhly is assassinated in Baghdad while reporting to his office

July 2006: Prominent FWCUI member Walid Jihad is shot dead while commuting to work in Baghdad. FWCUI leader Subhi Al Badri is threatened with the same unless he stops union activities and union organizing campaigns; his supervisors force him to take one month’s paid leave for demanding an investigation into the alleged misuse of $750 million for projects in his office

July 27, 2006: Government forces open fire on workers peacefully demonstrating for their delayed payments and basic rights in the Taslooje Cement factory in Sulimanyya, Kurdistan; four workers are killed and 16 injured

August 26, 2006: Seven workers in the Central Oil refinery in Karbala are shot dead by an unknown armed group

August 30, 2006: Government armed forces open fire on unemployed workers demonstrating in Samawa governorate

September 3, 2006: At least 20 gunmen, several disguised as police commandos, kidnap 26 workers—including 3 women—from a Baghdad meat processing plant, according to a Baghdad emergency police official. There has been no follow-up report.

Human Trafficking

Women and Girls: According to Time magazine and the U.S. State Department, young women and girls are being trafficked from rural areas to cities as well as to nearby Middle Eastern countries for sexual and labor exploitation. The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq estimates that more than 2,000 Iraqi women have gone missing since 2003, many trafficked to Syria, Yemen, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran for sexual exploitation. One woman described being sent to brothels in Sammara, al-Qaim, and Mosul before being taken back to Baghdad, “drugged with pills, dressed in a suicide belt and sent to bomb a cleric’s office in Khadamiyah, where she turned herself in to the police.”

Labor Trafficking: Contractors supporting the U.S. military have reportedly employed thousands of foreign workers who had arrived in Iraq as victims of trafficking. According to CorpWatch, which investigates and exposes corporate human rights violations worldwide, contractors working for Halliburton/KBR, which manages a $12 billion reconstruction contract, and First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, which has a $592 million contract to build the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, use deception and “bait-and-switch” hiring practices, charge exorbitant “recruiting” fees that put poor migrant workers in debt to their employers, hold passports to restrict workers’ movements, and provide inadequate living conditions and emergency medical care. Although the Pentagon prohibits such practices for all contractors receiving U.S. funds, it has no penalty for violating such policy.

Turkish middlemen “illegally” took a group of 400 Georgian nationals into Iraq, charged exorbitant “service” fees, and failed to honor promises of good wages and living conditions.

Interference in Union Activities

Decree 8750: On August 7, 2005, the Iraqi government (through a committee comprising several ministers, but not the minister of labor) passed Decree 8750, which specifically freezes the assets and 'controls all the monies' of all trade union organizations in Iraq. The decree also announced the Cabinet General Secretary’s intention to 'propose a new paper on how trade unions should operate, organize and function.” Decree 8750 affects not only the contested assets of the General Federation of Trade Unions (the Saddam era official union), but also, by implication, bank accounts operated by any new trade union. Thus, unions are not opening any new bank accounts in their names, and they believe that even their meager resources are not secure from government interference or seizure. The Iraqi government has rebuffed union attempts to discuss Decree 8750, and it remains in force. In April 2006, the government froze the bank accounts of the General Union of Oil Employees.

Violation of Freedom of Association: In February 2006, the GFIW sent an official complaint to International Labor Organization Director General Juan Somavia and ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder charging that in December 2005, the Minister of Reconstruction and Housing, the Minister for National Security, and the Minister for Civil Society Affairs officially interfered in trade union organizing in Iraq by trying to 'select' the leadership of the engineers union and appoint names to control and supervise elections to ensure the desired outcome.

De-Baathification Commission Actions: In a March 8, 2006, letter to the General Federation of Iraqi Workers, the Supreme National Commission for De-Baathification named five GFIW leaders who it claimed 'have no right to occupy any leadership position in any federation, society, association or union in Iraq' and directed the GFIW to 'take proper action and inform (the committee) accordingly.' The letter seemed to instruct the trade union federation to hold new union elections and submit newly elected names (presumably not former Ba’th Party members). This action violates the principle of freedom of association in two key ways: first, it is an example of direct government interference in the internal procedures of the unions in Iraq and in the internal union election process; and second, the government is questioning the right to be elected or appointed to certain union positions based on current or former political party affiliation. On March 23, the committee ordered GFIW five executive board members not to perform any union activity. They refused to comply and will resist this decision.

Union Elections: On May 3, the GFIW protested a memo (number 240) from the outgoing minister of labor that directed the Ministry of Civil Society to form a committee of six members to administer internal union elections. The union asserted that none of the appointed members was a trade unionist and that the action represented governmental interference in an internal union matter.

Strikes and Other Job Actions

Workers in all industries throughout Iraq are speaking up for their right to decent wages and benefits.

Oil and Gas: On August 22, 2006, some 700 GUOE members went on strike, seeking payment of delayed wages and benefits, on-time wage payments, overtime, pay increases, profit sharing, and increased allowances. The strike cut off some oil transport from south to central Iraq. The Ministry of Oil intervened and promised to resolve all outstanding issues. On September 4, after authorities failed to live up to their promises, workers resumed the strike, joined by gas production workers.

Textiles: On September 3, 2006, workers struck the Hilla textile company, demanding better salaries. This strike is one of many industrial and service worker protests aimed at increasing wages in the face of suddenly rising prices for all goods and services.

Health Services: On September 3, 2006, hundreds of workers in the health services in Nasirryya went on strike, demanding higher wages and resumption of a hazard allowance that had been cut. The strike lasted three working days. Although management promised to resolve the situation, no practical action has been taken.

Iraq’s Labor Law

In 1987, the Iraqi government outlawed independent labor unions under the Trade Union Organization Law. The minimum wage was abolished, along with the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike. Only a regime-controlled trade union structure was permitted and designated as the sole legal trade federation. This law is still in force.

In spring 2004, the Iraq minister of labor and the ILO signed a cooperative agreement under which the ILO agreed to help draft a new labor law in conformity with international labor standards, principles of democracy, and human rights. Significant progress was made toward improving the repressive 1987 law through the process. The draft labor law has undergone comments and revisions, mostly by the government, with minimal input by only one Iraqi labor federation. Most Iraqi unions have not seen these revisions and know nothing about their contents. The Iraqi government has said that the law was revised with 'the specific Iraqi context in mind.' The Iraq minister of labor under the previous government was a supporter of the ILO's draft labor law in its original form and pushed it through to the level of the Council of Ministers, where it has been stalled for more than two years.

Until a permanent labor law is enacted, there is no law governing industrial relations, and workplace democracy is not enshrined in law or practice. Iraqi workers and their nascent representative institutions are subject to exploitation and violations of their internationally recognized worker rights, without recourse. Plant managers in the public sector argue that they do not have the authority to sign contracts with workers committees because of the 1987 law. Iraqi unions have stated that they will not encourage union elections in the public sector until the law is officially revoked.

Major Trade Unions and Federations in Iraq:

Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq

General Union of Oil Employees

General Federation of Iraqi Workers

Iraqi Kurdistan Workers Syndicate Union/Suleimaniya

Kurdistan General Workers Syndicate Union/Irbil

--This report was published by the Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO, June 7th, 2008.