Shahrastani: No Legal Oil Unions in Iraq (the last Saddam-era law)

[Barrett808]

Source: UPI

Shahrastani: No Legal Oil Unions in Iraq
Unions Object to Draft Hydrocarbons Law, Call for Shahrastani's Resignation
By BEN LANDO

WASHINGTON, DC (UPI) -- Iraq's oil minister said Iraq's oil unions are not legitimate and have no more standing in the debate over the oil law than an ordinary citizen.

"There are no legal unions in Iraq," Hussein al-Shahristani said Wednesday in response to a question about various factions' positions on the controversial oil law. "Those people who call themselves representatives of the oil workers have not been elected to the position."

Shahristani spoke to UPI by phone from Baghdad.

The lone remaining law from the Saddam Hussein regime kept by U.S. occupying powers and the successive Iraqi government is the one that bans worker organizing in the public sector.

Read more: http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3726

[billyoc]

1. Wow. The one law they kept from Saddam.

Wow. :grr:

[stillcool]

2. does this mean...

the troops can come home? Benchmark #1 met? Can't imagine how these guys feel now...

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070723-054035-9329r
Iraq unions vow 'mutiny' over oil law
UPI

July 23, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's unions say that the draft oil law is a threat and threaten "mutiny" if parliament approves the bill.

"This law cancels the great achievements of the Iraq people," Subhi Al Badri, head of the Iraqi Federation of Union Councils, told the Al Sharqiyah TV station. He referred specifically to laws that nationalized Iraq's oil sector.
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They have threatened to strike in the past - and made good on the threat as recently as last month - and claim that workers of all sectors support them.

That was verified by Badri's interview, as reported by the Middle East Economic Survey.

"If the Iraqi parliament approves this law, we will resort to mutiny," he said. "This law is a bomb that may kill everyone. Iraqi oil does not belong to any certain side. It belongs to all future generations."

The law is stuck in negotiations with various parties demanding either a strong regional/local control over the oil sector vs. a strong federal government control.

[MasonJar]

3. So, does that mean that the workers who may be deprived of jobs have no say?

Apparently!

[ohio2007]

4. From the article,sounds like the unions didn't get that memo

Unions Object to Draft Hydrocarbons Law, Call for Shahrastani's Resignation

I wonder if this Shahrastani character is a Sunni?

I'm guessing the Shia in the south have established a voice that won't be silenced.

[Kagemusha]

5. You are incorrect, actually.

"Beckett's Iraqi counterpart, Foreign Minister Hoshayr Zebari, a Kurd, will continue in that post in the new Cabinet. Husayn al-Shahrastani, a Shiite ex-deputy parliamentary speaker, has been named the Cabinet oil minister. Baqir Jabr al-Zubaydi, a controversial transitional interior minister, has been named the finance minister." May 20, 2006.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/05/20/iraq.main/index.html

[ohio2007]

6. So who are these union reps speaking for the oil workers in the south?

oil workers are flexing their muscle in the south. They don't want revenue sharing going anywhere but locally