[Seattle-editorial] FP: Labor Rights in Iraq

[Jason Reep]

thumbs up

jonathan lawson wrote:

> subtitle: UNCLE SAM'S UNIONBUSTING WORLDWIDE
> title: In Iraq, Labor Protest Remains Illegal
> 
> Despite promises of democratization, US occupation policies in Iraq have 
> turned a deaf ear to the needs of Iraqi workers, who suffer the same 
> restrictions on organizing and workplace democracy as under the Saddam 
> Hussein regime, under worsened economic conditions. As under the 
> previous regime, the US-led Coalition Provision Authority has banned 
> labor unions and organized protests, two rights enshrined in the 
> Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
> 
> <p>Approximately seventy percent of the Iraqi workforce is unemployed. 
> Most who have found jobs working on reconstruction projects are being 
> paid an "emergency" wage, dictated by the US-led Coalition Provisional 
> Authority, of $60 a month.  None of the $87 billion recently 
> appropriated by Congress for Iraqi "reconstruction" is destined to help 
> impoverished Iraqi workers or the unemployed. Instead, the money will 
> prepare the way for the transformation of the Iraqi economy, and the 
> privatization of the state enterprises at its heart. The beneficiaries 
> are US conglomerates and contractors such as the notoriously anti-union, 
> Seattle-based firm <a 
> href="http://www.workersdemocracy.org/SSA.html">Stevedoring Services of 
> America</a>.
> 
> <p><b><a 
> href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=4568">Read 
> the full story here.</b></a>
> 
> <p><a href="http://www.owcinfo.org/campaign/Iraq/Index.html">Campaign 
> for Labor Rights in Iraq</a> | <a 
> href="http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org">US Labor Against War</a>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Seattle-editorial mailing list
> Seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/seattle-editorial