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26 October, 2010
Meeting in Stavanger, Norway September 6-8, 2010, delegates to the ICEM World Energy Conference were appalled to hear of the latest attacks on trade unions by the present “caretaker” government in Iraq.
Delegates listened to presentations by ICEM Executive Committee member, Hashmeya Muhsin Alsadawe, President General Union of Electricity Workers and Abdulah Muhsin International Representative of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW)
There is clearly an extended and concerted attack on trade union organisation. The latest attacks have seen on July 21, police storming the offices of the Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union in Basra on the orders of Electricity Minister Hussain al-Shahristani to shut the union down. As more police arrived, they took the membership records, the files documenting often-atrocious working conditions, the leaflets for demonstrations protesting Basra's agonizing power outages, the computers and the phones. Finally, Muhsin and her coworkers were pushed out and the doors locked.
Shahristani's order prohibits all trade union activity in the plants operated by the ministry, closes union offices, and seizes control of union assets from bank accounts to furniture. The order says the ministry will determine what rights have been given to union officers, and take them all away. Anyone who protests, it says, will be arrested under Iraq's Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005.
Delegates unanimously confirmed the importance of the ICEM EC resolution of May 26-27, 2010 and resolved to intensity their support and solidarity work with our affiliated trade unions in Iraq in their struggle for fundamental trade union and human rights and a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society.