Iraqi union leader urges opposition to oil law

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) - A proposed law regulating Iraq's oil industry would foster U.S. "hegemony" over the world's third largest oil reserves and Iraqi oil workers are determined to oppose it, an Iraqi union leader said on Monday.

Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Southern Oil Company Union and the Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers' Unions, was speaking in New York as part of a U.S. tour to press for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

Washington has been pressing Iraq's government to enact the law which the U.S. administration sees as a benchmark of progress toward national reconciliation more than four years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Umara said the proposed law amounted to "a raid by the international oil cartel" and he said unions representing thousands of workers in the industry would take strong measures to oppose it, including strikes if necessary.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18475951.htm

and the Iraqi PM (this admin's puppet) has threatened to have the union leaders arrested.

edit: To clarify what I mean. Maliki is pushing for this like there's no tomorrow. He's gotta be getting something. Because he'll become the most hated man in Iraq if he gets this squeezed through.

And, if nothing else, he damn well knows that the ONLY reason he's allowed to retain his office is due to the U.S. being willing to prop him up -- just like Abbas in the PA. He HAS to play ball with the U.S. occupation.

sw

in return that Maliki will have assurances from the U.S. governement that troops will be there for a long time IF this is passed.

or maybe a HUGE FORTUNE.

Crooks and liars all of 'em.

We went to take Saddam out of power. Mission accomplished. Over 3,500 dead. But we didn't go there for oil. The Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers union is correct. The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. We don't even belong in Iraq.

The US will have to sit as an occupier and pick a Iraqi gov't for the next 50s years that won't rip up this agreement when they finally achieve status as a sovereign nation.

It's good that the guy heading the 'unions' in Iraq is telling folks in New York all about how he's pissed off about it and his member might strike.

With most oil reserves in Iraq in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, an equitable distribution of oil revenues is key to easing violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 3,500 U.S. troops since the 2003 invasion.

After years of sanctions, neglect and sabotage, the oil industry needs billions of dollars in investment to boost output and increase revenues to rebuild the economy.

Oil production in Iraq is stuck at around 2 million barrels per day (bpd), well down on the nearly 3 million bpd hit in the final days of Saddam and even further from the 3.7 million bpd pumped in 1979, prior to the Iran-Iraq war

from the OP


Hey Saddam's gone...now what's the problem...oh right...it's the oil and the sectarian violence