Iraq: ITUC Calls on Authorities to Withdraw Military from Oil Strike

http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article1202



Iraq: ITUC Calls on Authorities to Withdraw Military from Oil Strike

Illustration de l´article Brussels, 6 June 2007 (ITUC OnLine): The ITUC has joined the Global Union for Chemicals, Energy and Mineworkers, ICEM, in calling on the Iraqi authorities to negotiate peacefully with the trade union representing striking oil workers in Basra, and to refrain from arresting or otherwise intimidating the workers. The strike involving pipeline workers, members of the 26,000 Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers (IFOU), began on 4 June following an announcement by their employer that a payment which was due to the workforce would not be forthcoming. More workers joined the strike action on 5 June, following which the Iraqi military entered the oilfields and surrounded the strikers.

all of their oil workers R our slaves. Pay them? What they want to earn a decent living? Maybe Iraq should check the status of union workers in America. Republicans HATE them. Collective bargaining might help them have health insurance, sick days paid time off. That would be bad for business. Next thing you know they will be gathering up our Migrant labor force and taking them over as strike breakers. In another vein, the idea that the Standing Iraq Army can turn on it's own citizens sounds like a hella democracy to me. To tell the truth, without my cynical sarcasm, I come from a long line of Union Organizers and workers. I payed dues to Service Workers until my injury made it impossible to work as a nurse, any longer. I believe in unions. That Army better leave those workers alone.