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 at igc.org>.
[The full text of the article is at <http://www.counterpunch.org/bacon08252003.html>.] *****
***** Thursday, October 30th, 2003 Iraqis Denied Worker Rights Under U.S. Occupation
Listen to: Segment <http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/demnow/dn20031030.ra&start=42:43.9>; Show <http://etree11-bu.archive.org/3/audio/dn2003-1030/dn2003-1030-1.mp3> Watch 128k stream <http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2003/oct/128/dn20031030a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=42:43.9> 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. . . . *****
David Bacon, "The Occupation's War on Iraqi Workers": <http://web.utanet.at/labournet.austria/engl10.htm>
***** 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>.] ***** -- 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/>