One of the first positive results from the war in Iraq was the re-emergence of a trade union movement—literally one month after the United States and allies went into that country in March 2003, five trade unions formed, representing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi workers. Since then, union members, especially those in unions representing oil workers, have been at the forefront of the push for a democratic society in the face of foreign strong-arming, said international Iraqi oil policy expert Greg Muttitt.

Speaking yesterday afternoon at the AFL-CIO, Muttitt, author of Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq, described how oil workers and their unions successfully prevented passage of an oil law that would have ceded most of the nation’s profits to multinational corporations. The Bush administration, Britain and the International Monetary Fund pressured the new Iraqi government to pass the law as soon as it took power in 2006, but with trade unions leading the way, religious and civic groups joined in opposition. Parliament, recognizing
the strength of their protest, never voted on it, Muttitt said.

There is no oil law today because of Iraqi trade unions and civic groups.

Since then, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has signed contracts with oil corporations, defying a late 1960s law requiring Parliament to approve all oil contracts. But as Muttitt pointed out, the contracts he signed do not give away as much profit to Big Oil as proposed under the law proposed in 2006 and those corporations have no recourse in Iraqi courts because their contracts are essentially illegal.

Muttitt, who since 2003 has tracked how western oil interests have pursued their agendas through the occupation of Iraq, said he is hopeful for that nation’s future because of the vibrant participation of Iraqis in civic issues. Yet the assistance of the global trade union movement and our allies is also essential, he said, especially now. The Iraqi government, which gets 90 percent of its revenue from oil, is attacking leaders and activists in oil workers’ unions, slashing salaries and transferring them to far-off regions away from their families. Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions President Hassan Jumaa has been disciplined for trade union activity, arbitrarily demoted in seniority by three years seniority and salary severely cut.

(You can take action to help Iraqi oil workers. Click here to send a message to the Iraq government to stop harassing oil workers.)

The union movement, including the AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center, have been assisting Iraqi unionists since 2003, with AFL-CIO  President Emeritus John Sweeney in 2007 calling on the Iraqi government to stop using the threat of force to intimidate workers in Basra oil fields when they were on strike and sending a letter to then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to use diplomatic channels to prevent military intervention in the strike. 

As Muttitt stated:

Solidarity has helped. These actions say there’s a solidarity within the trade union movement and we are watching.

Muttitt’s discussion was sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies and U.S. Labor Against the War.