Oil workers strike in occupied Iraq - demand pay, local control

ICEM Supports IFOU in Today’s Oil Industry Strike in Basra

At 6:30 AM this morning, 4 June 2007, oil workers struck the pipeline company in Basra, Iraq, bringing an immediate stop to the free flow of oil products, including kerosene and gas through pipe number 42.

The pipe transfers oil and gas to Baghdad and the governorates of the central region of the country. The workers are members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU).

The IFOU, previously known as the GUOE-Basra, and led by President Hassan Jumaa Awad Alasady, has over 26,000 members throughout the ten state oil companies operating in the south of Iraq. The union has a past history of strike action in defense of its members, and the oil industry as a whole of southern Iraq.

The ICEM, the global union federation of national energy unions throughout the world, supports the IFOU in their strike action today.

Earlier strike calls in May were postponed after the union gained a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. That meeting, on 16 May, resulted in the creation of
a committee tasked with working on finding solutions acceptable to both sides. The ICEM understands that although several of the union demands have been fully agreed to by Iraqi authorities, the IFOU is still far from having all their demands fulfilled. This is what led to today’s strike.

The union is currently focussing on two core demands in its strike at the pipeline company:

• They demand that the Oil Ministry take action to force the general manager of the pipeline company to resign; and
• They demand that the company be financially and administratively independent from the Baghdad-based central ministry, and that the pipeline company be managed locally.

ICEM is informed that the reason for the first demand, and the catalyst for today’s action, is that the general manger of the pipeline company, Adel Aziz, who is based in Baghdad rather than in Basra, blocked the orders of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Mailiki to release delayed benefits due workers. Moreover, he stopped a Iraqi Dinar (IQD)50,000 allowance which the workers are regularly entitled to.

The background is available at:
http://www.icem.org/en/77-All-ICEM-News-Releases/ 2260-Threatened-Oil-Industry-Strike-in-Iraq

A second phase of the strike has been threatened to begin tomorrow morning, again at 6.30 AM, in the event the IFOU does not receive signs signalling compliance with their demands. The second phase would expand the strike by closing pipeline number 48, which feeds the southern governorates with oil products.

ICEM, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), US Solidarity Center, and the UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) of the UK is following developments closely, and will keep trade union affiliates and the public fully informed on developments in this key dispute.

For further information, contact Jim Catterson, Intl. Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) Energy Officer:

+32 2 626 2045
Jim.catterson@icem.org

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http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0606-07.htm

Common Dreams
June 6, 2007

Iraq Government Orders Arrest of Oil Workers' Leaders

WASHINGTON

Iraq's powerful oil workers' trade union today
expressed alarm as an arrest warrant was issued for its
leaders, in an attempt to clamp down on industrial
action.

Members of the union have been on strike since Monday
4th June, in protest at the government's failure to
meet any of its promises made in a meeting with Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki on 16th May. The union's 16
demands included improvements to wages, health and
other working and living conditions as well as
consultation on the proposed oil law, which the union
opposes. The union added a 17th demand yesterday
demanding the sacking of the General Manager of the
Southern Pipeline Company.

On Tuesday, al-Maliki warned that he would meet threats
to oil production 'with an iron fist'.

The arrest warrant, based on a charge of 'sabotaging
the economy' specifically names Hassan Juma'a Awad, the
leader of the 26,000-strong Federation of Oil Unions,
and three other leaders of the Federation.

Hassan Juma'a commented, 'the government is
intimidating the union but we are determined to gain
our legitimate rights.' He added that the strike would
continue in accordance with the union's plan.

The strike entered its third day today and is in its
'second phase,' which now includes the closure of the
main distribution pipelines, including supplies to
Baghdad. 'Phase one' closed some of the smaller
distribution pipelines. Phases one and two did not
include production and exports.

The union is calling on all its supporters and unions
across the world to back the union at this critical
juncture. Sami Ramadani from the union's UK-based
support committee, Naftana said: 'Issuing a warrant for
the arrest of the oil workers' leaders is an outrageous
attack on trade union and democratic freedoms.'

Naftana is an independent UK-based committee supporting
democratic trade unionism in Iraq. It works in
solidarity with the IFOU. It strives to publicize the
union's struggle for Iraqi social and economic rights
and its stand against the privatisation of Iraqi oil
demanded by the occupying powers. For more information
see the IFOU's website www.basraoilunion.org

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAR838704.htm

Iraqi oil pipeline workers strike
05 Jun 2007 12:53:48 GMT
Source: Reuters
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Background
Iraq in turmoil
More
(Previous BAGHDAD, adds details, background)

By Aref Mohammed

BASRA, Iraq, June 5 (Reuters) - Workers at the Oil Pipeline Company in southern Iraq began a strike on Monday demanding the government improve their pay, the company spokesman said.

Faraj Mizban said about 600 workers are taking part in the strike and that they have shut two main pipelines which carry refined oil products to Baghdad and to the southern cities.

Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said the strike will not have any effect on crude oil exports from the south, vital for Iraq's economy.

"The workers have started a strike objecting to the lower yearly profit they get," he told Reuters.

"It has caused a halt (to the flow) of oil products..to Nassiriya, Kerbala and Baghdad," he added.

Mizban said the workers wanted pay rises from the company branch in Basra to be financially and administratively independent from the centre in Baghdad.

Basra, richest city in Iraq and its gateway to the Gulf, has been the scene of a power struggle among Shi'ite factions seeking control of its oil wealth.

Iraq, which depends heavily on hard currency from oil exports, is in desperate need for cash to revive its shattered economy.

International firms are still waiting for an energy law to regulate how the oil wealth would be distributed, before they start pumping money into the country.

The law, which was endorsed by the cabinet in February, was expected to be passed by the parliament last month. Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he will hit with an "iron fist" all those who plans to harm the interests of the state and he said in a statement that he has ordered the security forces to face "firmly all saboteurs".

The power struggle in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, involves militias and politicians loyal to young Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the Fadhila party and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC).

Locally powerful Fadhila, which controls key oil industry jobs in Basra, opposes the creation of a Shi'ite "super-region" espoused by SIIC, the dominant Shi'ite faction in Iraq.

Hassan Jomaa, the head of General Union of Oil Employees in Basra, said if the government refuses to meet the workers demands then they will work on spreading the strike to all oil facilities in Basra, including exports and production.

But the oil ministry spokesman Jihad said it was not possible for the Oil Pipeline Company workers to stop exports because they have no influence in the Southern Oil Company which is in charge of exports.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad)