Iraqi Oil Workers to Strike Over Privatisation Law

[seafan]

Iraqi Oil Workers to Strike Over Privatisation Law

08.05.2007


Iraq's largest oil workers' trade union will strike this Thursday, in protest at the controversial oil law currently being considered by the Iraqi parliament. The move threatens to stop all exports from the oil-rich country.

The oil law proposes giving multinational companies the primary role in developing Iraq's huge untapped oilfields, under contracts lasting up to 30 years. Oil production in Iraq, like in most of the Middle East, has been in the public sector since the 1970s.
The Union, representing 26,000 oil workers, has held three previous strikes since 2003, each time stopping exports, for up to two days at a time. The announcement of the strike has spurred negotiations with the Ministry of Oil, which are ongoing.


Imad Abdul-Hussain, Federation Deputy Chair of the IFOU said: "The central government must be in total ownership and complete control of production and the export of oil". He warned against the controversial Production Sharing Agreements favoured by foreign companies, saying other forms of co-operation with foreign companies would be acceptable but not at the level of control and profiteering indicated in the current Oil Law.


Federation President Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi said: 'The oil law does not represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people. It will let the foreign oil companies into the oil sector and enact privatisation under so called production sharing agreements. The federation calls for not passing the oil law, because it does not serve the interests of the Iraqi people."
The Union is not alone in its' condemnation of the current oil law. Opponents of the law also include all of Iraq's other trade unions, a number of political parties, and a group of over 60 senior Iraqi oil experts.


Hassan Jumaa went on to say: "The federation calls on all unions in the world to support our demands and to put pressure on governments and the oil companies not to enter the Iraqi oil fields."

.....


Ewa Jasiewicz of Naftana - the UK Support Committee for the IFOU said:
'The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, like any union, has the right to engage in collective bargaining over issues important to their members.

.....


Union leaders have already received a number of death threats which they are taking seriously. "As soon as the federation called for the strike, many of our members and officials were physically threatened by parties active in the political process, with the aim of thwarting the strike and undermining the message of the strike organisers."

.....

From the NYT, May 3, 2007:

ERBIL, Iraq, May 2 — Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials expressed deep reservations on Wednesday about the draft version of a national oil law and related legislation, misgivings that could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush.

The draft law, which establishes a framework for the distribution of oil revenues, was approved by the Iraqi cabinet in late February after months of negotiations. The White House was hoping for quick passage to lay the groundwork for a political settlement among the country’s ethnic and sectarian factions. But the new Kurdish concerns have created doubts about the bill even before Parliament is to pick it up for debate.

.....

In Iraq, the Kurds have taken issue with a new provision that was quietly packaged with the draft oil law by the Shiite-led Oil Ministry last month. The measure would essentially cede control of the management of nearly all known oil fields and related contracts to a state-run oil company to be established after passage of the law, said a spokesman for the Kurdish regional government.

.....

The provision is part of four so-called annexes that are to be debated with the draft oil law in Parliament. Any objection to one or more of the annexes will stall passage of the law.
“We are worried about these ideas put into the annexes,” Mr. Salih said in an interview in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. “It worries us a lot.” If the law and the annexes go to a vote before Parliament, a rejection by the Kurdish bloc alone, which holds 58 of 275 seats, would not doom the law. But Parliament operates by consensus, and members say it is almost certain that no law regarding oil will pass without the approval of the Kurds.

.....

Contributing a further layer of complication, a Sunni Arab legislator said Wednesday evening that the main Sunni Arab bloc, which has 44 legislative seats, objected to any discussion of the law in Parliament at this time. “Acceleration in presenting it is inappropriate since the security condition is not encouraging,” said the legislator, Saleem Abdullah. He said Sunni Arabs were also worried that the law would give foreign companies too large a role in the country’s oil industry. Sunni Arab political leaders supported cabinet approval of the draft law, but appear ambivalent now.

White House officials have said passage of the oil law is one of four major benchmarks they would like the Iraqi government to meet before fall.

.....

So, today, Cheney sneaks into Baghdad.

Time for Deadeye to threaten the Iraqis to give up their oil, *if you will.* And, by the way, not to go on vacation. Sign the damn oil deals, or we will remove all military or financial support.

BAGHDAD, May 9 — After a day of talks here with Iraq’s fractious political leaders, Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that he detected “a greater sense of urgency” among them in tackling a list of divisive issues that the Bush administration sees as the key to any sustained progress against the country’s insurgent and militia groups.

Keeping up the Bush administration’s drumbeat of pressure on Iraqi leaders, Mr. Cheney began his tour of the Middle East with a previously unannounced visit to Baghdad, his second since the invasion. In 12 hours of meetings with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other leaders, he urged the Iraqis to act decisively on issues that have riven Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds and told them that political progress in Baghdad is essential if American military support is to be sustained in the face of strong Congressional and popular opposition in the United States.

.....

During his news conference, he veered away from a question about so-called benchmarks that would tie future military and financial support to Iraqi progress on the disputed issues, saying the administration would continue to oppose any Congressionally mandated restraints on President Bush’s “prerogatives as commander in chief” or on the “flexibility” of American commanders.

.....

Seems like the *sense of urgency* Cheney claims he sees in the Iraqi leaders, actually is in the White House's dread that the Bush/Cheney sweetheart oil heist will collapse before being signed by the Iraqi Parliament.


Hiding their predatory greed is not the Bush/Cheney strong suit.


Stay strong, Iraqis. Your oil belongs to you.

[Tom Joad]

1. Besides Dennis kucinich, is there other democrats that oppose this?

I expect a dozen or so.
David Obey was screaming at Dennis over this a day or two ago. Kucinich has offered an amendment to the supplemental to oppose this.

[seafan]

2. I wish I knew where they all stood on this. It is the whole ball of wax for Bush/Cheney.

If either we or the Iraqis can stop this theft of their oil resources, it will be a godsend.

[Strelnikov_]

3. A strike by the workers in 2003 prevented a takeover

This is serious, as we all know the GOP oiligarchs are not going to give up the Precious without a fight. Anyone else getting a feeling that the shit is about to hit the fan.

Hard to Deny: Iraq Is All About the Oil

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51572/?page=3

Not long after President Bush declared "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" under a "Mission Accomplished" banner on the deck of the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, Paul Bremer, the new head of the American occupation, promulgated a series of laws designed, among other things, to kick-start the development of Iraqi oil. In addition to attempting to transfer management of existing oil facilities (well heads, refineries, pipelines, and shipping) to multinational corporations, he also set about creating an oil-policy framework, unique in the region, that would allow the major companies to develop the country's proven reserves and even to begin drilling new wells.

All these plans were, however, quickly frustrated, both by the growing Sunni insurgency and by civil resistance. Iraq's oil workers quickly unionized -- even though Bremer extended Saddam's prohibition on unions in state-owned companies -- and effectively resisted the transfer of management duties to foreign companies.

In one noteworthy moment, the oil workers actually refused to take orders from Bechtel officials in the oil hub of Basra, thus preserving their own jobs as well as the right of the Iraqi state-owned Southern Oil Company to continue to control the operation in that region. Bechtel's management contract was subsequently voided.

[Gloria]

4. Good for them! This law robs Iraqis of their resources and benefits

oil companies only.

All of the Bremer orders are horrendous for the Iraqi people....

[pocoloco]

5. They are really gonna be PO'ed when they find out about the

Iraq-Israel oil pipeline!!!

[burrowowl]

6. Good for Them!

DOWN WITH BU$HCO!

[Rydz777]

7. Maybe this will help us wean ourselves from dependency

on Middle East oil - a supposed objective of our government.