Sadam's Labor Laws Live On In Iraq

[Itsthetruth]

The Progressive
December 2003 Issue

Saddam's Labor Laws Live On
by David Bacon

Most Iraqi workers hoped the fall of Saddam Hussein would liberate them, enabling them to recover their lost rights. Chief among them was the right to an independent union. In 1987, the regime of Saddam Hussein reclassified most Iraqi workers--those who labored in the huge state enterprises that are the heart of the country's economy--as civil servants. As such, they were prohibited from forming unions and bargaining.

The occupation, however, didn't lift this decree. It is still in force, as privatization looms like a sword of Damocles over those workers and the factories on which they depend for survival. And while keeping in place the ban on unions, the occupation authorities have kept wages low and unemployment high. For Iraqi workers, the signal could not be clearer: The overthrow of Saddam did not bring liberation.

Meanwhile, labor peace activists in the United States have begun to reach out to the new Iraqi unions. U.S. Labor Against the War, which brought together unions and labor councils that opposed the Bush intervention before it took place, is speaking up again. It has announced it will mount a national campaign to oppose privatization, get the 1987 law lifted, and expose the violations of labor rights in Iraq. "We need Congressional hearings into the union-busting actions by the U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq," says Clarence Thomas, of the San Francisco Longshore local. "If unions here knew what's being done in our name over there, they'd be outraged."

A delegation from U.S. Labor Against the War visited Iraq in October to investigate conditions. The group had a formal meeting with Nuri of the Iraqi labor ministry. He was asked three times whether the 1987 law would be repealed. Each time he made a long speech but in the end failed to answer the question. Sitting on a couch next to him in his ornate office was Leslie Findley, a British representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority, who is assigned to oversee the ministry. She was asked the same question and also refused to answer. Then she complained about the number of foreign union delegations visiting the ministry. "I'm going to tell the minister that these are taking too much of his time, and recommend that he concentrate instead on doing his job."

http://www.progressive.org/dec03/bac1203.html