The following interview was conducted with Iraqi trade
unionists visiting Britain as guests of UNISON from 8th – 18th
November 2004, as part of an international solidarity and capacity-building
exercise with Iraqi trade unions. The delegation of 6 representatives of the
Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) took part in organising and education
courses and was introduced to UNISON’s Conference, Equality, Branch and Regional
structures.
As well as receiving training on negotiation and campaigning
skills, ‘mapping exercises’ and other organising tools, the delegation met with
union officers and lay representatives from a number of different unions,
including UNISON, TGWU, RMT & CWU in both Bristol and Glasgow. The IFTU members
were also introduced to a number of leading figures in the trade union movement
including Bill Spiers, General Secretary of the Scottish TUC and the head of the
TUC’s International Department, Owen Tudor.
The IFTU members in the delegation included two women
members, Alia Hussein, an Executive Committee member and Naafa Najib, President
of a local branch of the Agricultural Workers Union. The four men in the IFTU
delegation are Hassan Shabar, Culture/Media Officer for the Transport &
Communication Workers’ Union; Muhsin Jasim, Baghdad Regional Secretary and Abdul
Hasan, Treasurer of the Public & Social Service Workers’ Union; and Arkan Jewad
Kadhum, a member of the Railway Workers’ Union.
Alia Hussein (Baghdad Regional
Executive Committee, Agricultural Workers Union - AWU) and Naafa Najib (Branch
President, AWU):
Naafa Najib:
“I work as an auditor in a department of the Ministry of Agriculture. My
department is concerned with supplying all types of agriculture equipment,
fertiliser, seeds, etc. In my department there are about 600 workers and
administrators and we have 120 members in our local union branch of the
Agricultural Workers’ Union.”
Alia Hussein: “I work as an administrator in a public sector
company, the Veterinary Company, which is under the direction of the Ministry of
Agriculture. In the Baghdad region our union has 27 workers’ committees and we
also organise workers in 14 other provinces across Iraq.”
“I was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the
AWU at our first Conference in June this year. There are 15 members of the
Executive Committee. I have special responsibility for women’s issues; maternity
leave, sickness, health issues, etc. I organise seminars and meetings on all
types of women’s issues as well as human rights, public health, health and
safety and computer training. I was organising a computer-training course just
before I left Baghdad to come to Britain.”
“At our Conference in June we took decisions to demand the
repeal of the 1987 Labour Law of Saddam Hussein. We also called for the voice of
women to be increased in society and politics and particularly in the interim
national assembly. We also called for a campaign against unemployment.”
“When the Governing Council abolished
the 1959 Personal Status Law (Family Law) which gave men and women equal legal
status and introduced Law 137, on 29 December we
protested against it. Under Law 137 women would have to get permission from a
family member before being able to marry, their husbands could forbid them from
working and divorce them by saying 'I divorce you' three times and would not
have to pay alimony.”
“ Many women from non-governmental organisations, trade
unions and women’s organisations held a Conference in June in Al Waziria
district in Baghdad at the veterinary school conference building. Over 300
women representing thousands of others took part. We demanded the repeal of the
Law 137. One month later the law was repealed.”
Hassan Shabar (Culture/Media
Officer, Transport & Communication Workers’ Union - T&CWU):
“I am unemployed but I work full-time for the T&CWU. I was a
garage mechanic and a student. The T&CWU organises the sectors covered by the
Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Communication.”
“In all the state-run workplaces, directly under the control
of the two ministries we have set up union committees. In addition we have union
committees established in private sector companies, such as the private bus
companies that operate both within Baghdad and between Baghdad and other
cities.”
“In Iraq there are also a number of companies in which we
call the ‘mixed sector’, which means those companies owned by a combination of
private shareholders and public interests, for example the ‘Badia’ road haulage
company where we have also built union committees.”
“We estimate that we have at least 10,000 members in Baghdad
alone. The reason that we cannot be more precise is that since our union was
formed following the 16th May 2003 founding conference of the IFTU up
until recently we had not developed a proper membership registration and
subscription system.”
“We recently produced a membership application form, which
new members have to sign when they join the union. This allows us to develop
accurate membership records. I am involved in setting up this system and
compiling membership lists. I had to stop when we reached 10,000 to prepare my
journey to London.”
“Our union’s structure is based on workplace committees and
branches. In June this year we held our first Conference in Baghdad, each
workplace committee of the union was entitled to send a representative and there
was a proportional quota system to allow larger workplaces more than one
representative. During June there were also conferences held by the Public and
Social Services Union, the Mechanics Union, the Agricultural Workers’ Union, the
Textile Workers’ Union and the Construction Workers’ Union.”
“All of the conferences were organised by an IFTU Conference
Preparations Committee, composed of representatives of each of the IFTU’s
affiliated unions. The Conference started by holding elections to choose the
leadership of the new union. The elected Executive Committee then took
suggestions from delegates for actions and campaigns and several political and
industrial decisions were taken.”
“The Conference of the T&CWU unanimously demanded the
re-instatement of victimised workers who had been dismissed for political
activities in the past. Our Conference also demanded that the Interim Government
repeal the 1987 Labour Law of Saddam Hussein, which classifies public sector
workers as ‘state officials’ and makes public sector strikes illegal.”
“In July this year the Executive Committee took up the demand
of the Conference for us to re-open the union offices, which had been closed
down by the American military on 6th December 2003. The Executive
Committee met and decided to break the locks the Americans had put on the
building and to re-occupy it.”
“We prepared well for the action and led a march and a
demonstration to the offices which we re-opened. There were approximately 300
union members on the march and they had banners that read: “Long Live the Union
of the Workers – Death to Colonialism!” This is a famous slogan of the workers’
movement from the 1930s and 40s. We have kept the American locks as souvenirs.”
“Recently, the T&CWU has been involved in opposing attempts
by the interim government at privatisation. Our sector has been chosen as the
first one for the government to try to privatise state industries. The
Communication Ministry announced in September that it planned to dismiss 1,000
out of 3,000 workers employed by the Telephone Maintenance Company. The Ministry
sent out termination notices to the workers, saying that the workers selected
for dismissal were only temporary and of no further use, although all of the
workers had been employed for 10 years or more.”
“The Ministry said that because of shortage of funds it
wanted to sell the Telephone Maintenance Company to a private company, but they
did not say which one. The T&CWU Executive Committee met and decided to try to
negotiate with the Ministry, but the Ministry refused to negotiate. So we
organised a public protest in front of the Ministry buildings in the middle of
October and started a media campaign using the IFTU newspaper and a local
Baghdad newspaper, ‘Al Jareeda’. The result was the Ministry did not dare to
risk a public confrontation on this issue and reinstated all of the workers that
were sent notices of dismissal.”
Muhsin Jasim (Baghdad Regional
Secretary, Public & Social Service Workers’ Union - P&SSWU):
“I was a technician and boiler maintenance worker for the
Ministry of Industry until I was dismissed for political reasons in 1982. I then
worked as a cleaning contractor. I am now the Regional Secretary of the P&SSWU
in Baghdad. I work for the union in the morning and as a youth worker in the
afternoon.”
“Our union organises all grades of civil servants in all
government ministries, non-medical (ancillary) workers in the health sector and
private sector service workers in hotels, clubs, cinemas, barbers, restaurants,
coffee shops and in tourism. We have between 100-120,000 members in Baghdad and
300-400,000 members nationally in Iraq.”
“We have already started a membership subscription system and
members pay about 1% of their wages. Temporary Contract workers typically earn
60-70,000 Iraqi Dinars (IrD) – about $45 / £25 -
per month, although some have been employed on these contracts for 14
years or more. Permanent workers typically earn IrD 150-200,000 - $100-134 / £54-72
per month.”
“Our union’s Conference in June this year decided to organise
all workers throughout the service sector industries, whether they are employed
on temporary or permanent contracts. To do this we have to get rid of the
inhibitions that many workers still have towards trade unions because of the
history of Saddam’s ‘yellow unions’. Our Conference also demanded that the
Interim Government repeal the 1987 Labour Laws that are aimed against public
sector workers in particular.”
“We have organised strikes recently in the hotel sector in
Baghdad. The union called a 2-day strike against the dismissal of 24 hotel
workers at the ‘Baghdad Hotel’ - one of the big hotels in the ‘Green Zone’ where
the Americans stay. At the time that the hotel workers were dismissed, there was
no union committee at the hotel, but as a result of the strike we formed a union
committee. The strike didn’t only educate our members, they educated the hotel
manager too.”
“The strike was very difficult for the management because
many Americans stay at the hotel. They were very angry and disturbed that the
hotel wasn’t cleaned for 2 days. They tried to bribe us by inviting us to eat
dinner with them, but we refused. In all 180 workers at the hotel took part in
the strike – the entire workforce. Workers in other big hotels saw the strike
and formed union committees as well.”
“Our union together with the IFTU is planning a march and
demonstration soon demanding the right for trade unions to be represented in the
planned national constitutional assembly. We want ordinary, members to have the
right to stand for election as trade union candidates to represent our members
politically and to take forward our demands for a repeal of the 1987 Labour
Laws.”
Arkan Jewad Kadhum (a member of
the Railway Workers’ Union - RWU):
“I am a works supervisor in the rolling stock (carriage and
wagon) maintenance department at Baghdad main railway workshops. I have worked
there since 1989.”
“We established our union committee over 12 months ago after
the American troops came to the workshops and tried to install two Ba’athist
union officials to negotiate on our behalf. The drivers and mechanics held a
meeting and elected 3 representatives to tell the Americans that we would not
accept the ‘yellow unions’ and that we have elected our own representatives.”
“We have a works committee in our depot of 6 representatives
now. The RWU has about 10,000 members across Iraq. We organise all workers
employed by the national Railway Company, including clerical and administrative
workers, maintenance workers, as well as train drivers, controllers (guards) and
others. We have a union office at the main Baghdad railway station.”
“Four of our members were murdered just before I came to
London; two train drivers, one controller (guard) and a security guard. All of
them were from Baghdad. They were working a freight train carrying timber from
Mosul to Baghdad. I heard that their train was stopped and that they were shot
in the back of the head, execution style.”
“As soon as the news of the attack on the railworkers reached
the depot in Baghdad, the train drivers and mechanics went on strike, as we have
before, to demand that the Railway Company (IRR) provides proper security for
our members. The strike coincided with the attack against Falluja, but we were
striking against the attacks on our members’ security by terrorists, we are more
at risk from the terrorists than most other workers are, because we have to go
everywhere in the country and trains are easy to attack.”
“It is a lie that Iraqi Railway workers have begun to boycott
supplies to US troops, since we never supplied them in the first place. People
who have no respect for the truth and don’t care for the lives or the safety of
railway workers spread this story. Saddam used to move his weapons and army by
road, which is why he built so many motorways. The Americans don’t use railways
to supply their troops any more than Saddam did. The Iraqi railways are now
mainly freight trains for industrial and consumer customers, there is a
passenger train service between Baghdad and Basra which has been suspended due
to the security situation.”
“We are proud of the Iraqi railways and we have even paid for
our own tools to maintain some of the locomotives. We have formed a special
committee to root out corruption in the Iraqi railways, especially in
management. During the looting period private landowners tried to take over a
lot of railway land to build private houses. We have served notice on them to
leave the railway land.”
“Our union’s great concern is privatisation. A US army
officer visited our workplace recently and told us that if we refused to work
properly and continued to make trouble, he would bring Indian railway workers to
run the trains. We have demonstrated against these threats.”
