11 September, 2007
Trade unions from ten Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern and North African countries gathered in Amman, Jordan, on 2-3 September, and the result was a loud cry for global union solidarity from the unions of the politically troubled region. The event was an ICEM regional conference, and the Global Union Federation has now received 11 requests for affiliation from unions that attended.
Jordanian Labour Ministry official Majeed-el Hbachena opened the conference, and said it is important that states offer constitutional and legal rights to trade unions so that they may fulfil their obligations. He also said governments must engage trade unions in developing education and training strategies for workers.
Key items in discussions over the two days included efforts by Iraqi unions to defeat the proposed oil law in that country, and winning respect and fair treatment for Palestinian workers from Israel and the global community. The 35 trade union leaders that attended stood united behind the position that Iraq’s natural resources belong to all Iraqi people!
Trade unions from Kuwait, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, and Iraq seek affiliation with the ICEM. “We have an important role to play in the region,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “It is oil and gas, but electrical power, mining, and chemicals are also of major importance. Faced with increased levels of privatisation and contract and agency labour, unions in MENA face the same attacks as unions everywhere,” said Warda.
The region also elected its nominees for ICEM statutory positions, posts that will be endorsed at ICEM’s November Congress. Some positions were designated on a yearly rotation system in order to bring more Middle East and North African (MENA) unions to the global front. Selected as the ICEM Vice President and Presidium member, in a rotating role, was Mohamed el-Sayed Morsi of Egypt’s Public Syndicate of Public Utilities. Current Executive Committee member Abdeslam Mansour of UMT, Morocco, was confirmed to retain that seat, and the substitute post will rotate between a delegate from Jordan’s General Union of Petrol and Chemicals Workers’ Union, and the General Union of Petroleum, Mining, and Chemicals Workers in Palestine (GUPMCWP).
Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of Iraq’s General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians (GUEWT), a member union of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) and ICEM’s first affiliate from the occupied country, was nominated as the future Women’s representative on the Executive Committee.
ICEM’s work in the region was strongly supported in Amman by the presence and voices of ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa, and Welile Nolingo, the general secretary of South Africa’s Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU), who also is an ICEM Presidium Member.
The conference had the support and expertise of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). FES’s Britta Kähler, from the Jordan office, played a major role in developing and carrying out the conference. It also benefited through involvement from the US Solidarity Center.