Statement from Abdullah Muhsin of the IFTU on recent international trade union delegation to Iraq.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) led delegation to Iraq met with leadership of the IFTU, at its temporary headquarters at the Mechanics Union in Baghdad. The delegation was composed of Owen Tudor (international secretary) of the TUC, Harry Kamberies (director of the American International Solidarity Centre of the AFL-CIO and Ms P. Kamalam (Asian Desk of the ICFTU), Mohamed Trabelsi of the International Confederation of Arab trade Unions (ICATU), Education International and the International Transport Workers' Federation.
Abdullah Muhsin, the London representative of the IFTU, who accompained the delegation said: " the meeting was warm and constructive"
The ICFTU-led delegation had an open meeting at the Al Dawra oil refinery in central Baghdad with members of the 16 committees of the Oil and Gas Workers' Union, which is part of the IFTU and its president Thaer Khatheer.
The delegation also met with the President and Executive Committee members of the Railway Workers' Union at the central train station in Baghdad.
Afterwards, the delegation travelled in an engine to visit a union branch committee and a workplace in Baghdad.
The delegation then split into two. One part went to Iraqi Kurdistan for meetings with Kurdish unions. The other went to Basrah and Umm Qasr port, where they met with Coalition officials and raised the issue of allowing workers to organise freely and not to take Saddam's anti-union laws as the basis of policy in the new Iraq. This resulted in a meeting with the new Managing Director of Basrah all ports in which he agreed that unions should be allowed to conduct their work freely and that this would enhance the process of building civil society.
The delegation met the IFTU leadership in Basrah, the President of the IFTU Basrah Region, Hussein F Hassain and the Regional Secretary. They also met leaders of 10 individual unions in Basrah. The meeting took place at the main office of the OIL and Gas Workers' Union.
The IFTU streed that the ILO should be fully involved in writing a new labour law in Iraq, in consultation with the IFTU.
The delegation also visited the IFTU headquarters, which was raided by the US military in December 2003 and which is still closed.
The delegation concluded: " The international trade union movement will continue to work to assist Iraqi workers and their unions at the sectoral, regional and national levels. A strong a viobrant trade union movement will be a key foundation for the development of democracy in the country, and in ensuring social justice and equitable and sustainable economic development."
posted by Abdullah 5 March at 15:30PM
Posted at March 6, 2004 06:06 PM