The workers strikes news-update
Oil Sector Unionists Meeting in Baghdad
54 trade unionists
and worker activist from the central
oil sector ( Baghdad and vicinity) held a meeting on Monday, September 4th in the
hall of the Institute of Oil in Baghdad . They were representatives of many departments and companies of oil and gas production and industry, and other oil projects,
pipelines and refineries. The leadership of FWCUI took part in the
discussions and decisions
of the assembly after having it
planned previously.
The attendees
of the meeting discussed issues and demands of workers of the oil sector
which were previously forwarded in the first meeting
of 29-8-2006 and finalized them
to be the following:
1. Housing the workers
of the oil industry, distributing residential lots.
2. Raising the minimum
salaries
3. Expanding limits of promotion and
salary
4. Turning contracted workers into full-timers,
including them for retirement and social insurance
5. Demolishing bureaucracy and corruption from administrations
Samir Al Mousawi, the union president
of the oil sector technicians, proved capability in chairing the meeting
towards its intended goals. The assemblers stipulated the demands mentioned above and they decided that the
Basrah oil workers’ strike represents the demands of the rest of the oil
sector whether in the Center or the
North of Iraq. They pressed for the
following matters also:
· Working towards coordination
among the oil sector trade
unions of the North, Center
and South.
· Raising the demands
to the authorities and deciding a deadline for meeting them,
otherwise a general strike will be organized.
· Holding a general assembly on 20-9-2006 for all the Central oil unionists.
· Forwarding a protest letter
to the Minister of Oil for
his verbal humiliation of the
workers’ position when he described them as “traitors” because of their demands to improve their own situation
The leaders and activists
contributed to the discussion throughout the meeting:
1 The representative of workers
of oil projects focused on the problem of temporary contract workers and the need to turn them full-timers and not to allow their
lay-offs once the projects finish.
2 Subhi Al Badri from
FWCUI leadership elaborated
on some previous successes gained, i.e. while leading
the services’ workers’ union and having their demands
met regarding housing and raising salaries, while Oufi Madhi, also from FWCUI leadership, discussed the situation
of temporary workers
3 The representatives of the
oil and gas sector discussed the organizational
basis of the technical workers’ trade union and the possibility of extending the work
of the union to cover all parts and fields of the oil
sector.
4 Finally Falah Alwan,
president of FWCUI, demonstrated
the overall situation of oil workers at a national scale and
he stressed upon the need to unite
their struggle with the rest
of the industrial and services sector and to plan for a general conference
for the workers
of the oil sector
The workers’ leaders
and the unionists directed a call to all workers of the oil sector to take
on the demands raised by the
union and to proceed for a general conference
for all Centre, South and North parts
of the oil sector in order to found a general union for
the oil sector.
Workers’ Media Center
6-Sep-06