U.S. Labor Campaigns for Iraqi Labor Rights

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

*****   U.S. Labor Campaigns for Iraqi Labor Rights
Delegates Oppose Occupation
by David Bacon

By gathering together unions representing more than half a million
workers six months after the Iraq war began, US Labor Against the War
(USLAW) achieved a goal that even its organizers must, at times, have
doubted was possible.

Over 150 delegates met at the National Labor Assembly for Peace in
Chicago on Oct. 23 and 24, representing 60 local unions, eight labor
councils, three national unions and 10 grassroots Labor for Peace and
Justice chapters from around the country. Most delegates were white,
but the participation of African Americans and Latinos was greater
than in many other sections of the peace movement.

Delegates agreed on a mission statement and found common ground on an
overarching purpose--making labor opposition to the Iraq occupation
and the Bush administration's "war on terror" a majority among U.S.
workers and unions. . . .

[The full text of the article is at
<http://www.war-times.org/issues/14art8.html>.]   *****

*****   August 25, 2003
War Makes Privatization Easy
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime

By DAVID BACON

. . . On July 29, US occupation forces in Iraq arrested a leader of
Iraq's new emerging labor movement, Kacem Madi, along with 20 other
members of the Union of the Unemployed. The unionists had been
conducting a sit-in to protest the treatment of unemployed Iraqi
workers by the US occupation authority, and the fact that contracts
for work rebuilding the country have been given overwhelmingly to US
corporations. . . .

Unfortunately, the corporations who have been granted contracts for
work in Iraq by the Bush administration have long records of fighting
unions and violating labor rights. In May, Amy Newell, national
coordinator of US Labor Against the War, and former executive
secretary of the Monterey/Santa Cruz Central Labor Council, went to
Geneva to present a report to international labor bodies,
highlighting the record of 18 of those corporations. . . .

Companies highlighted in the report made in Geneva include:

* Stevedoring Services of America. SSA was a leader in last year's
efforts by Pacific Coast shippers to lock out west coast longshore
workers, and worked with the Bush administration to threaten the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union with breaking up its
coastwise agreement and bringing troops onto the docks. ILWU
spokesperson Steve Stallone called SSA "ideologically anti-union and
anti-ILWU."

* MCI Worldcom. Worldcom has a long record of opposing worker efforts
to organize. It declared bankruptcy in 2002 after fraudulently
claiming $11 billion in earnings. As a result, the retirement savings
of thousands of workers were completely wiped out, along with $2.6
billion in public pension funds. The Iraq contract was awarded after
the company was fined $500 million by the Securities and Exchange
Commission for its illegal fraud.

* Eight of the eighteen companies with the major contracts are
completely non-union. Almost all have records of fighting any union
organizing effort. . . .

David Bacon is a reporter and photographer specializing in labor
issues: <http://dbacon.igc.org/>. He can be reached at:
<dbacon@xxxxxxx>.

[The full text of the article is at
<http://www.counterpunch.org/bacon08252003.html>.]   *****

David Bacon, "The Occupation's War on Iraqi Workers":
<http://web.utanet.at/labournet.austria/engl10.htm>

*****   Thursday, October 30th, 2003 Iraqis Denied Worker Rights
Under U.S. Occupation

Listen to:
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<http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20031030.ra&start=42:43.9>;
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Watch 256k stream
<http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2003/oct/256/dnB20031030a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=42:43.9>


Labor journalist David Bacon exposes how the Bush administration is
systematically busting unions in Iraq to facilitate privatization and
how none of the $87 billion appropriated by Congress for
reconstruction will go to Iraqi workers or the unemployed. [includes
transcript at
<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/30/1627246>]

As the Bush administration prepares the way for the transformation of
the Iraqi economy through privatization of state enterprises it is
not considering protecting or reinforcing labor rights in Iraq. Iraqi
workers have suffered a drastic cut in income since April as a result
of Coalition Provisional Authority decisions and are now getting paid
on the same wage scale that prevailed under the last few years of the
Saddam Hussein regime. None of the $87 billion recently appropriated
by Congress for reconstruction in Iraq will go to Iraqi workers or
the unemployed - which now total about 70% of the population.

In response, Iraqis have been protesting at workplaces throughout the
country demanding better salaries and working conditions. But since
April the CPA has essentially banned unions in Iraqi state
enterprises, and even issued a decree prohibiting strikes.

David Bacon, labor journalist who returned from Iraq last week. His
article "The Occupation's War on Iraqi Workers" appears in the
upcoming issue of the Progressive. . . .   *****
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>