25 February, 2008
Earlier in February, workplace sit-ins by the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Union in Iraq (FWCUI) occurred in Basra, Hilla, Musayab, and Kut, following the failure of the Electricity Minister to accede to demands by workers.
After a few hours of sit-ins by thousands of workers on 4 February, Minister Karim Wahid Hasan called FWCUI leaders with a readiness to hear those demands. FWCUI called the sit-ins successful for that result, saying in a statement that it was “a courageous step for all workers of Iraq.”
The sit-ins had been called by the Union of Engineering Technicians of FWCUI, as well as other workers’ groups.
Workers’ demands include a halt to the corruption inside the Ministry of Electricity, creation of new electric stations to serve Iraqi provinces, housing for workers in the sector, repayment of danger entitlements to workers, giving day labourers work contracts, and lifting the status of temporary workers to permanent staff.
At a news conference last week, Electricity Minister Wahid called on the government to increase the ministry’s 2008 budget nearly three-fold to US$4 billion in order to re-build the occupied country’s power network. Current electric generation is less than half the 9,500 megawatts needed in Iraq, with power outages resulting mainly from sabotage, according to the UN’s Humanitarian Office.
United Press International reports that in a period from March to November 2007, 1,211 workers in the electric sector had been targeted for attacks. A study done for the news agency found that the sector in that period had undergone 651 attacks on distribution and transmission lines, 66 attacks on thermal power stations, and 18 attacks on other power operations.
The ICEM supports FWCUI in their efforts to achieve security and just economic entitlements for workers in Iraq.