Iraq-Afghanistan Veterans Unemployment: A Quiet Crisis
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a decade ago, some 2.3 million military members have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more continue to deploy leaving their families at home while they serve our country overseas.
But when these brave men and women return home, many face a new enemy: unemployment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was 12.4 percent in July, up from 11.8 percent in July 2010. In August, the jobless rate for these veterans had dropped slightly to 9.8 percent, but it does not include veterans who are underemployed or have stopped looking for work.
Executive Council Praises Middle East Workers Fighting for Freedom
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The AFL-CIO Executive Council today praised the role workers and independent trade unions are playing in the popular mobilizations against corrupt, oppressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Meeting at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., the council said in a statement:
After enduring decades of repression exercised by governments with the support of the West, including the United States, the workers and people of Tunisia and Egypt have mobilized by the millions for democracy and fundamental rights. The AFL-CIO and the global labor movement salute the independent trade union movements in both of these countries and support their aspirations for social justice.
Read the full statement here.
AFL-CIO Protests Saddam-like Iraqi Labor Order
As U.S. combat troops head home from Iraq, new evidence shows there is much to be done before all Iraqis are truly free. In a letter to Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka strongly protests a recent government order that bans all trade union activities in the government-owned electrical industry.
The order by Iraq’s minister of electricity prohibits ministry officials from dealing with unions and instructs them to take back all the benefits electrical unions have negotiated in recent years. More ominously, it orders the ministry, along with the police, to close all electrical union offices and take control of their assets.
In the letter—which also was sent to Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—Trumka reminds Al-Maliki that Iraq is a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and must abide by international treaties such as the ILO rules on the right of workers to join unions.
America’s Vets Fought for Our Future
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As chairman of the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council, Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) President Mark Ayers salutes America’s veterans.
Memorial Day is a time to reflect upon those fallen American heroes who have given their lives and health to keep this nation safe. Memorial Day is also the perfect time to honor those brave soldiers who are still with us, to thank them for the freedoms we enjoy every day and to do all that we can to improve their quality of life.
But, in many aspects, Memorial Day has simply morphed into the day when we kick into high gear for the summer season.
U.S. Unionists Demand End of Saddam-Era Labor Law in Iraq
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When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, “we were told democracy would be built in Iraq” says Stan Gacek of the AFL-CIO’s International Department. But speaking at a rally today outside the Iraqi consulate in Washington, D.C., Gacek added:
There won’t be democracy in Iraq until the workers’ right to organize is guaranteed.
Every law from the Saddam Hussein regime has been rewritten—except the 1987 labor law that abolished the freedom to collectively bargain, the right to strike and a guaranteed minimum wage. That is the labor law today’s Iraqi government is using to bust the country’s union movement. Workers have been fired, harassed, exiled and even killed for forming unions and taking job actions.
Iraqi Workers Need Your Help
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Erin Radford, program officer at the Solidarity Center, sends us this request for action to support Iraqi union leaders in their struggle for bargaining and other workplace rights.
Iraqi workers across the country have faced harassment, threats and even criminal charges for forming unions despite their hopes for democracy. But Iraq’s unions are fighting back—and they need your support.
Iraq’s 1987 labor law abolished the right to collectively bargain, the right to strike and the minimum wage. It reclassified all public-sector workers (approximately 90 percent of the workforce) as “civil service” and prohibited them from forming unions. The Iraqi government has chosen to enforce this outdated law, refusing to negotiate with unions and declaring them “illegal.”
You can take action by signing the International Call for a Fair and Just Labor Law. Or write to the Iraqi Embassy. Click here to find contact information. There’s a great interview here with Hashmeya Musshin al-Saadawi, president of the Electicity Workers and Employees Union in Basra about the labor campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
91 Unionists Killed in 2008, 49 in Colombia Alone
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A total of 91 union members were killed worldwide last year, the same number as in 2007. But more than half (49) were killed in Colombia alone, 10 more than last year, making it once again the most dangerous country for trade unionists, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC‘s) “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights.”
The Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade union members. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent, says José Luciano Sanin, director of Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Union School), a leading Colombian think tank.
