Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
1) Letter from OWC
Co-Coordinators
2) "An Anti-Labor Line in the Sand" -- by David Bacon (LA Times
Op-Ed article, Nov. 9)
3) "Why a Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq?" -- Fact Sheet
Produced by USLAW
4) The Occupation and Labor Rights in Iraq Petition to the Congress and
Leaders of the Labor Movement -- Petition Launched by USLAW
5) Model Resolution on the Occupation and Labor Rights in Iraq
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1) LETTER FROM OWC CO-COORDINATORS
Dear Friends and Supporters of the OWC:
Last July, with your help, the OWC Continuations Committee made it
possible for USLAW National Organizer Amy Newell and San Francisco Labor
Council representative Alan Benjamin to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to
attend the International Conference in Defense of ILO Conventions, where
-- at the initiative of USLAW -- an International Campaign Against the
Occupation and For Labor Rights in Iraq was launched.
Thanks to you, we were able to raise not only the $2000 for the travel and
lodging expenses in Geneva, but an additional $500 to print a four-page,
tabloid-size Labor Rights in Iraq campaign supplement. We are extremely
grateful to all who contributed so generously to this effort.
As you were able to read in the OWC Report on the USLAW National Labor
Assembly for Peace (posted to our list on Nov. 4 and soon to be posted on
our OWC website), this Campaign Against the Occupation and for Labor
Rights in Iraq has become one of the signature campaigns of USLAW.
We are including in this posting some of the main items of the USLAW
Campaign packet. We urge you to visit the USLAW website at http://uslaboragainstwar.org
to obtain the PDF files of all these texts for distribution,
signature-gathering and endorsements in your union and workplace. (Also,
while you're visiting the site, join USLAW and download all the
information on how to get your union or labor organization to affiliate to
USLAW.)
We in the OWC Continuations Committee support fully this important
campaign against the occupation and for labor rights in Iraq. We share Amy
Newell's assessment of the scope and objectives of this campaign when she
stated:
"We think that exposing the shocking violation of workers' rights in
Iraq under the Occupying Authority can become another nail in the coffin
of the occupation itself, and can be an important tool for winning over
sections of the U.S. labor movement that did not initially oppose the war
but strongly support the fundamental principle of labor rights. Most
important,a successful campaign will give the workers of Iraq the
opportunityto build a strong and independent labor movement with which to
fight the occupation and advance the interests of the Iraqi people as a
whole."
One last item:
We will be sending you shortly a copy of the Declaration of the
International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labor Rights in Iraq
-- which has been prepared by USLAW and is now being submitted for
endorsement by the International Liaison Committee and the International
Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, before it is distributed more widely
around the world for endorsement by international trade union federations,
national unions and individual unionists.
This Declaration reasserts the main campaign demands and calls on unions
around the world to endorse a delegation that will go to the ILO
headquarters in Geneva early next year to demand a full investigation into
the violation of labor rights in Iraq.
We will keep you posted on the progress of this International campaign.
Again, we wish to thank all of you for your ongoing support to the work of
the Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference.
In Solidarity,
Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
Co-coordinators,
Continuations Committee,
Open World Conference
San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
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2) AN ANTI-LABOR LINE IN THE SAND
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-bacon9nov09,1,5314528.story
UNIONS
By DAVID BACON
(David Bacon is a labor journalist and photographer. His forthcoming book
is "NAFTA's Children.")
November 9, 2003
BAGHDAD -- For most Iraqis, oil used to seem like a blessing. It raised
their standard of living during the 1960s to near-First World levels. Then
it began to seem more like a curse, financing war and a brutal
dictatorship. It was oil, many believe, that drew the covetous attention
of foreign powers, most recently the United States. Now, for some Iraqis,
oil is simply a commodity their children sell by the roadside to passing
cars, the way poor farmers in the San Joaquin Valley once sold peaches and
strawberries at highway fruit stands.
At the Al Daura refinery on the outskirts of Baghdad -- one of three such
huge installations in Iraq -- the plant manager knows workers can't live
on their salaries, which average $60 per month, so to keep them working he
gives them oil, which their children hawk daily outside the plant.
Before the war, workers received bonuses, profit-sharing and food and
housing allowances to supplement their small incomes. Now, although
salaries remain the same, that additional income has been eliminated by
U.S. occupation authorities.
In plants and factories all over Iraq, workers are quickly organizing
unions. They want better wages. They want shorter hours (workers at the
refinery and elsewhere often work 11- and 13-hour shifts without
additional pay). They want safety shoes, goggles, masks and other
protective gear. Most of all, they want a voice in the future of their
jobs.
But in their quest for what they see as simple fairness in the workplace,
they are encountering a determined foe: the Coalition Provisional
Authority. Whenever the new unions try to talk with the managers or
ministries that operate the plants, they're told that a law passed by
Saddam Hussein in 1987 is still being enforced by the CPA. This law says
that workers in state-owned enterprises (where the majority of Iraqis
work) have no right to form unions or to bargain for contracts.
The law violates at least two conventions of the United Nations'
International Labor Organization. But on June 5, CPA chief L. Paul Bremer
III backed up this decree with another that Iraqi union activists say bans
strikes and demonstrations that would disrupt economic activity.
U.S. funding in Iraq seems primarily focused on two things -- an
overwhelming military presence and the transformation of the Iraqi economy
from one in which the bulk of industry is state-owned to one in which it
is in private hands. Both are key parts of a plan to make the country
attractive to foreign investors, who, Bremer seems to feel, might find the
presence of unions a disincentive to investment. And nothing can stand in
the way of privatization.
In an Oct. 8 phone press conference, Thomas Foley, director for
private-sector development for the CPA, announced a list of the first
Iraqi state enterprises to be sold off, including cement and fertilizer
plants, phosphate and sulfur mines, pharmaceutical factories and the
country's airline. On Sept. 19, the authority published Order No. 39,
which permits 100% foreign ownership of businesses except for the oil
industry, and allows businesses to send their profits outside the country.
Iraqi workers view the prospect of privatizing their workplaces with
dread, fearing the sell-off will bring massive layoffs in order to
maximize profits. Al Daura's manager, Dathar Al-Kashab, predicted that
with privatization, "I'll have to fire 1,500 [of the refinery's
3,000] workers. In America, when a company lays people off, there's
unemployment insurance, and they won't die from hunger. If I dismiss
employees now, I'm killing them and their families."
Outside the gates, the unemployed go hungry and even homeless. Some 70% of
Iraqi workers have no jobs. Though Congress may have appropriated billions
for "reconstruction," Nuri Jafer, the deputy minister of labor
and social affairs, says he can find "no country willing to fund our
plans" for a minimal system of unemployment benefits. Reconstruction
itself is invisible on the streets. Work may be proceeding on the
pipelines and ports necessary to get oil exports restarted, but huge piles
of the war's rubble lie untouched.
Fledgling unions, although in a precarious position, are moving forward
energetically. One, the Workers Democratic Trade Union Federation, is
being organized by labor activists driven underground or into exile in
1977 when Saddam Hussein banned real unions and executed many leaders. Now
the federation has set up unions in the country's main industries,
including oil refineries like Al Daura. Basra already has a central labor
council, and workers there have mounted protests.
Another group, the Workers Unions and Councils, helped workers elect
committees in factories like the State Leather Industry plant, a huge shoe
factory, and the Mamoun Vegetable Oil enterprise. Both factories are
candidates for privatization. This union also backed Baghdad's Union of
the Unemployed when it organized demonstrations in front of the CPA
offices, demanding jobs and unemployment benefits — hardly things the
U.S. should stand against.
But U.S. zeal to privatize Iraq -- in the process bringing in a host of
American companies -- seems to trump labor rights, jobs and the welfare of
working families. At one recent international conference, ExxonMobil,
Delta Airlines and the American Hospital Group all expressed interest in
purchasing Iraqi concerns, while Bechtel, Halliburton and Fluor Corp. are
among many already operating in Iraq under no-bid contracts.
Meanwhile, the CPA is holding down the wages of Iraqi workers. One woman
sewing shoes at the state leather factory said she struggled to support
six family members on her CPA-set emergency payment. "The prices of
food and clothing are going up rapidly, and the salary is very low. We
work hard, and I've been here 10 years. I have to have a raise," she
said. But that requires the CPA's permission. "When we talked to the
manager, he told us he had to talk to the Oil Ministry, which had to talk
to the Finance Ministry, which had to get permission from the coalition
forces," said Detrala Beshab, president of Al Daura refinery's new
union.
Iraq's new labor movement is determined to stop the work site sell-off,
the loss of jobs and the prohibition of unions and strikes, which may
increase conflict with the CPA. Instead of trying to ban labor activity,
the U.S. must respect the labor rights guaranteed under international law.
Unions, after all, are an important part of America's democratic
tradition. As Majeed Sahib Kreem, general secretary of the union at the
vegetable oil plant, said recently, "a major reason for our existence
is to eliminate the laws issued by the Baath regime."
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
********************
3) WHY A CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS IN IRAQ?
(Fact Sheet Produced by USLAW; PDF file with this fact sheet, includes
photos, can be downloaded from USLAW website: http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org)
Since George W. Bush declared an end to the war in Iraq in April - *
Unemployment among Iraqi workers has reached 70%. Hunger and dislocation
affect a growing number of families.
* The US Occupying Authority has frozen Iraqi wages for most workers at
$60/month, eliminating bonuses, profit sharing and subsidies for food and
housing they had received. The already inadequate living standard for
workers is getting worse, not better.
* Congress appropriated $87 billion for reconstruction of Iraq and
Afghanistan (at the expense of public services and jobs in this country).
None of those funds will go to raise Iraqi wages or provide benefits to
unemployed Iraqi workers. Instead they will fatten the profits of
Halliburton, Bechtel, and other big corporate backers of the Bush
administration that got no-bid contracts in Iraq worth billions of U.S.
tax dollars.
* The US Occupation Authority continues to enforce a 1987 law prohibiting
unions and collective bargaining in the public sector and state
enterprises where most Iraqis work. Why is the U.S. enforcing Saddam
Hussein's anti -labor decrees if it says it wants to bring democracy to
the Iraqi people? * The Occupation Authority issued a new decree allowing
100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses. It announced it intends to
sell off the factories, refineries, mines and other Iraqi state
enterprises. But these enterprises belong to the Iraqi people, not to the
US. Privatization of Iraqi workplaces would lead to massive layoffs at a
time when unemployment in Iraq is already at crisis levels. Shouldn't the
Iraqi people decide what to do with their national assets and resources?
* The combined effect of these measures will be to deny workers a voice in
what happens to public assets, to their jobs, incomes, standard of living,
and the structure of Iraq's economy - hardly the "democracy" the
U.S. promised when it invaded.
* The rights to organize and join a union of their choice, to collectively
bargain and to prevent child labor are guaranteed to all workers by
Conventions 87, 98 and 138 of the International Labor Organization. The
U.S. is obligated to respect and enforce those conventions.
We in the U.S. know from bitter experience what it means to experience
an erosion of labor rights. Corporations in this country have been
attacking, undermining and trying to roll back our rights for years. These
are some of the same corporations now operating in Iraq.
Supporting labor rights for Iraqi workers is the right thing to do. It is
also part of our struggle to secure those same rights for workers here in
the United States.
U.S. LABOR AGAINST THE WAR, P.O. BOX 153, 1718 M STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON,
DC 20036
info@uslaboragainstwar.org --- www.uslaboragainstwar.org
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4) THE OCCUPATION & LABOR RIGHTS IN IRAQ PETITION TO THE CONGRESS
& LEADERS OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT
[Petition launched by USLAW; a PDF copy of this petition, with
multiple entries for signature gathering in your union and workplace, can
be downloaded from the USLAW website at http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org .
We urge you to help USLAW gather tens of thousands of signatures on this
petition. Also, please fill out the coupon below and return to Michael
Eisenscher at <info@uslaboragainstwar.org> .]
* We, the undersigned, call for internationally recognized trade union
rights for workers in Iraq - the right to organize in the union of their
choice, to bargain and, when necessary, to strike Š AND for those same
rights to be respected by corporations and enforced by the government in
THIS country.
* We call for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) set up by the U.S.
to stop enforcing Saddam Hussein's 1987 law banning unions in the public
sector and state-owned enterprises where the majority of Iraqis work.
* We call on the U.S. to halt all plans to privatize Iraq's assets and
state-owned enterprises. Let the people of Iraq decide their country's
future.
* We want U.S. troops returned to their homes and families now.
* We want our tax dollars spent on infrastructure repair, rebuilding
schools and providing health care in Iraq AND in the U.S., not to line the
pockets of well-connected multinational corporations and arms merchants.
* We call on Congress to investigate the violation of labor rights in
Iraq, corporate profiteering, and cronyism and favoritism in dispensing
contracts for work in Iraq.
NAME
UNION & LOCAL#
EMAIL ADDRESS
PHONE ( )
ADDRESS
CITY
STATE
ZIP
(please fill out the coupon and return to <<info@uslaboragainstwar.org>)
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5) MODEL RESOLUTION ON THE OCCUPATION AND LABOR RIGHTS IN IRAQ
[Circulated by U.S. Labor Against the War for adoption by unions,
labor councils and other labor organizations.]
Whereas: Since George W. Bush declared an end to the war in Iraq in
April, unemployment among Iraqi workers has reached 70%, facing many
families with hunger and dislocation, and
Whereas: Since Bush announced the war's end, the US occupying
authority has frozen Iraqi wages for most workers at $60/month, while at
the same time eliminating bonuses, profit sharing, and bonuses for food
and housing, causing a sharp cut in the income of those Iraqi workers
still employed, and
Whereas: $87 billion was appropriated by Congress supposedly for
the reconstruction of Iraq, yet not a dime is set to be used to raise
Iraqi wages or for the benefit of its unemployed workers, and these
extraordinary expenditures will come at immense cost in services and jobs
here in the US, and
Whereas: Since April Iraqi workers have begun to reorganize their
trade union movement, seeking a better standard of living, and to preserve
their jobs and workplaces, and
Whereas: The US occupation authority has continued to enforce a law
issued by Saddam Hussein in 1987, prohibiting unions and collective
bargaining in the public sector and state enterprises where most Iraqis
work, and
Whereas: The US occupation authority has announced it intends to
privatize the factories, refineries, mines and other state enterprises,
selling them off to private owners, despite the fact that these
enterprises belong to the Iraqi people, not to the US, and has issued a
new decree, Public Order 39, allowing 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi
businesses and the repatriation of profits, and
Whereas: The privatization of Iraqi workplaces would result in the
massive layoff of Iraqi workers, at a time when unemployment is already at
crisis levels, and
Whereas: The US occupation authority is in effect making it illegal
for Iraqi unions and workers to organize at the workplace to oppose
privatization or have any voice at all in the future of their own jobs,
and
Whereas: Iraqi unions are seeking to organize despite having no
resources of any kind, while the US occupying authority continues to
withhold from them the welfare funds and other resources and buildings
held by the Saddam-Hussein affiliated government unions, and
Whereas: Workers in the United States have experienced an erosion
of our own labor rights to organize and collectively bargain in defense of
our jobs, rights and working conditions and thus understand what the
restriction or loss of these rights means to working people,
Therefore be it resolved: That this local union (or other labor
body) calls for full trade union rights in Iraq, for immediate
nullification of the 1987 Hussein law banning unions in public enterprises
as well as the nullification of any other restriction on the full exercise
of labor rights, and
Be it further resolved: That we call on the US occupation authority
immediately to implement Conventions 87, 98 and 138 of the International
Labor Organization, guaranteeing the right to organize and bargain
collectively, and prohibiting child labor, and
Be it further resolved: That we call for an end to the US
occupation of Iraq, so that Iraq can be governed by and guarantee the
rights of its own people, labor rights included, and
Be it further resolved: That we call for a Congressional
investigation of the suppression of trade union rights in Iraq, and the
privatization of the workplaces of Iraqi workers and the property of the
Iraqi people, and
Be it finally resolved: That we will donate material resources,
such as computers, telephones and office furniture, as well as money, to
the Fund to Support Iraqi Trade Union Rights, established by US Labor
Against the War and encourage all unions to do likewise.
U.S. LABOR AGAINST THE WAR, P.O. Box 153, 1718 M Street, N.W.,
Washington, DC 20036
info@uslaboragainstwar.org