International Transport Workers' Federation
Tribute to Iraqi trade union leader
24 March 2006
Torky Al Lihabi at a World Bank seminar
The ITF has paid tribute to Torky Al Lihabi, an Iraqi trade union leader who died on 20 March in a road accident in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Torky Al Lihabi was President of the Transport and Communications Workers’ Union in Iraq and the founder of the new transport union in the newly unified General Federation of Iraqi Workers. His was the first Iraqi trade union to join the ITF. A long-standing fighter for trade union freedoms in Iraq, he was jailed for many years under Sadam Hussein’s regime. He was also detained by the American forces in the period following the invasion of Iraq.
Commenting on the news of Al Lihabi’s passing, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “His death will be a severe loss to those concerned with trade union rights in Iraq and around the world.”