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19 May, 2008
A critical multi-union trade union conference was held in Basra, Iraq, last week, 14 May, under the scope of the Executive Committee of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). Chaired in part by Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the ICEM affiliate, General Union of Iraq Electricity Workers and Technicians (GUEWT), the conference produced a unified response to the Iraqi government’s call for union elections between June and August of this year.
At left, ICEM Executive Committee Member Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein
The demand called on the government to abolish 1987’s Public Law No. 150, a Saddam-era decree forbidding workers employed in the public sector from forming or joining a union. A statement issued to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that followed the meeting also called on it to abolish Decree No. 8750, the draconian instrument put in place in 2005 by the occupational forces. That measure effectively confiscated all trade union funds, and prohibited unions from collecting dues or maintaining assets.
In addition, the 15 trade unions present issued a demand for revival of Article 22, Paragraph 3 of the Iraqi Constitution, which would guarantee Iraqi unions the right to form or join free and democratic trade unions.
Early this year, the al-Maliki government decreed that trade unions inside Iraq must conduct several rounds of elections in order to choose leaders. But under Public Law 150 – and of equal significance, the occupation’s Decree No. 8750, which al-Maliki continues to uphold – most of the unions at last week’s GFIW Basra event could not participate in such elections.
The GUEWT, for example, as well as workers in the oil, railway, transport, ports, and health care sectors, are excluded because these sectors all are part of Iraq’s public sector. “We agree with the format for union elections, but with reservations,” said Abdullah Muhsin, GFIW International Representative. “Full freedom of association and common recognition of free and democratic trade unions inside Iraq must come first.”
In the letter to Prime Minister al-Maliki, that went as well as to Iraq’s President and the President of Parliament, the GFIW states: “Five years have passed since the fall of the hated regime. Iraqi workers, instead of receiving the support they deserve, must realize their potential and thus employ this potential to help reconstruction of Iraq’s devastated economy.
“In the name of Basra workers, our federation, the GFIW in Basra, appeals to your Excellencies to recognize the sacrifices endured by Iraqi workers in their defiance of extremist onslaughts, and allow workers the right to conduct free and open elections across Iraq’s public, private, and cooperative industries.”
Besides the GUEWT, the letter was signed by the GFIW Basra Head, Hussein Fadel Hassan; the Mechanic Workers’ Union of Basra; the Transport Workers’ Union of Basra; the Service Workers’ Union of Basra; the Construction and Wood Workers’ Union; the Municipality Workers’ Union of Basra; the Iraqi All Ports Workers’ Union, based in Basra; the Railway Workers’ Union; the Health Workers’ Union of Basra; the Engineering and Professional Workers’ Union of Basra; the Agricultural Workers’ Union; and the Society for Development and Reconstruction.