Iraqi Government Freezes
Union Bank Accounts
USLAW calls for solidarity actions by U.S. labor movement
The Iraqi regime has frozen the bank accounts of Iraqi labor unions under
Decree 8750 adopted in 2005. The decree gave the Iraqi authorities the
power to seize all union funds and prevent them from being dispensed for
union activity. To justify the 2005 anti-union decree, the regime used
the pretext of promising a future law to 'regulate' trade union
organizations and their activities. No law recognizing and respecting
labor rights was adopted. Decree 8750 is still in effect. The "election"
of a government has change nothing.
In 2004 the occupation's then pro-consul in Iraq, US administrator Paul
Bremer, declared trade union activity in the state (public) sector to be
illegal by continuing to enforce Saddam Hussein's 1987 Law 150, banning
unions in the state sector by declaring public employees to be 'civil
servants' rather than 'workers'. Law 150 also continues in effect.
From Day One of the occupation, the U.S. has aimed to put Iraq's vast oil
resources and all its public enterprises (most of its core economy is
state-owed) in the hands of multinational corporations, if not through
direct privatization (the preferred route) then through Production Sharing
Agreements. The labor movement in Iraq is one of the most effective
opponents of this policy. The oil workers' union organized an
anti-privatization conference last year and another one is planned for this
year. In October, 2003, union activists forced KBR out of oil industry
workplaces. KBR had been given a no-bid contract to get the oil industry
back into production after the invasion.
If Iraq is to develop a real democracy with full participation of all its
citizens without regard to religious affiliation, ethnic group, tribe or
gender, a free and independent labor movement is critical. No democracy
can exist without one. The U.S. and the government it created can not
claim to be for democracy while attempting to strangle Iraq's labor movement.
HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
USLAW asks unions, labor councils, state federations and labor and other
social justice activists across the U.S. to protest the Iraqi regime's
interference with and harassment of Iraqi unions that are fighting to
defend the rights of Iraqi workers in their workplaces and the interests of
Iraq's working people in society. Demand that union bank accounts be
unfrozen, that Saddam Hussein's Law 150 and Decree 8750 be annulled and
that labor rights be immediately recognized and fully respected in Iraq in
accordance with internationally accepted International Labor Organization
(ILO) standards.
Send your protests to:
Jalal Talabani, President
Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister
Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, Parliament Speaker
Jawad Bulani, Minister of the Interior
c/o Embassy of the Republic of Iraq
1801 P St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036 or
Fax: (202) 462-5066 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
With copies to:
Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary
U.S. State Department
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Fax: 202-647-5733
Kindly provide USLAW with a copy which we will pass on to the GUOE in Iraq.
USLAW: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)
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www.uslaboragainstwar.org
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PMB 153
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Co-convenors: Gene Bruskin, Maria Guillen, Fred Mason,
Bob Muehlenkamp, and Nancy Wohlforth
Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer & Website Coordinator
Virginia Rodino, Organizer
Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff
===========================================================================
Have you checked out the USLAW website lately? New material is posted
daily. The News section is one of the most comprehensive archives of
information about labor in Iraq and U.S. policy regarding Iraq available on
the Internet.
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org
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