Iraqi Workers Fight Intimidation, Forced Labor

by James Parks, Jun 8, 2007

Workers in Iraq face the dual dangers of a lack of basic security and a lack of basic workers’ rights. Striking oil workers this week found themselves surrounded by the military. At the same time, U.S. prosecutors reportedly are investigating charges that the company building the U.S. embassy in Baghdad forced migrant workers to work on the project against their will.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called on the Iraqi government to immediately stop using the threat of force to intimidate workers in Basra oil fields. The workers, members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers, walked out Monday after months of negotiations over wages, health and safety and the use of temporary workers failed to produce a settlement. The next day these striking workers were surrounded and threatened by Iraqi armed forces.

The workers returned to work Tuesday night after receiving a promise of further talks, but the troops remain in place. 

Another key issue is the future of the Iraqi oil fields. The U.S.-backed government has proposed a new law that would permit multinational oil companies greater profits from oil sales than in any point over the past 30 years, potentially depriving the country of much needed resources.

In a joint statement with the British Trade Union Congress, Sweeney urged Iraq to 

…pull back its security and military forces and cease its menacing threats to arrest and attack these workers immediately.

Sweeney also wrote Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, urging her to use diplomatic channels “to convey to the Iraqi government that military intervention is not the way to resolve this dispute.” 

The International Trade Union Confederation and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Union also called for immediate withdrawl of the military from the oil fields.  

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. prosecutors are investigating allegations that the Kuwaiti company building the $592 million U.S. embassy in Baghdad forced hundreds of migrant workers from South Asia, the Philippines and other nations to work on the project against their will.  The U.S. Department of Justice began the investigation of First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. after former employees alleged that workers at the company were told they were being sent to Dubai, only to wind up in Iraq instead. According to the allegations, First Kuwaiti confiscated the workers’ passports, so they were unable to leave Baghdad.

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