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28 January, 2008
In a 3 January letter to the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Iraq, Hassan Juma’a Awad al Assadi, leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), demanded enactment of a draft labour law upholding workers’ rights to join unions and bargain collectively.
Iraq needs passage of the Labour and Social Security Law for stability, Hassan Juma’a Awad said, and he also proposed that Iraq formalize a multiple trade union federation and union structure, based on professions and industries. That structure would be headed by a central council of labour federations “to promote and advance the democratic work” necessary to build trade unions that protect the best interests of the Iraqi workers, he wrote.
Hassan Juma’a Awad, IFOU leader, speaking at the ICEM Congress in Bangkok
Hassan Juma’a Awad and the IFOU call on the government to comply immediately with the part of the 2005 Constitution, which “guarantees the right of forming and joining professional organisations and unions.” The draft labour law, written in 2006, is now delayed up by Iraq’s Council of Ministers, preventing it from reaching the Parliament.
The Labour and Social Security Law, if passed, would guarantee trade union rights, for instance, to elect shop floor representatives. It would ensure full freedom of association, and it would grant protection from discriminatory actions, such as death or threat of death, due to trade union activity.
Hassan Juma’a Awad’s letter urged the Labour and Social Ministry to implement “a pluralistic approach whereby sectoral federations and professional organisations are recognised in the union work.” He also stressed that union participation must begin with trade union committees on shop floors in order “to follow the bottom-top approach” to building unions and trade union federations.
The ICEM insists that the Iraqi government act now to adopt this rights-bearing labour law. Reconciliation can really begin when living standards rise. The ICEM has condemned the union-crippling measures that were implemented by the occupying forces following the 2003 invasion, as well as renewal of those decrees by the Iraqi government since.
The IFOU is a 30,000-member labour federation based in Basra that is the workers’ voice in some ten oil businesses connected with the Southern Oil Co.