Iraqi government threatens arrest for leaders of striking oil workers

International concern is mounting over threats by the Iraqi government to arrest union leaders following strikes by oil pipeline operators in the country last week. Arrest warrants have been issued for Hassan Juma'a, president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), which represents the company's oil workers, and three other senior officials, according to Naftana, a London-based group linked to the IFOU. Striking oil workers have also been surrounded by troops at Sheiba in the south of the country. The news has worried Western trade union organizations including the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Britain and the US's AFL-CIO, which have both called for the Iraqi government to stop intimidating workers by using military force. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney has written to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asking her to use diplomatic channels to stop the intimidation. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Military intervention is not the way to resolve industrial disputes." There is, however, uncertainty over whether warrants have already been issued for the arrest of Juma'a and his comrades. Some reports indicate the men have been threatened with warrants, others that the warrants have been issued directly by the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sami Ramadani, a spokesman for Naftana, said Juma'a had confirmed to him on June 9 that warrants had been issued. However, other union sources said they believed the government had only threatened using them. A TUC spokesman said: "The threat to arrest Iraqi strikers who have broken no law is clearly unacceptable." IFOU members began strike action on June 4, stopping the transit of oil through pipelines. The strike was suspended two days later to allow for talks with the government. Workers are objecting to Iraq's proposed hydrocarbon law, which unions claim will amount to privatization of the industry, allowing Western oil executives to sit on an oil ministry council which will approve contracts under which foreign companies can operate. The unions have made 16 demands in relation to the oil law, including protection of pay and measures to safeguard health and safety and working conditions. (Observer (UK)) Iraqi labor protests oil law, US troops Iraqi labor leaders are in Washington lobbying against Iraq's proposed oil law and for a withdrawal of US troops. The oil law "is an economic occupation of Iraq," Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, the president of Iraq's Electric Utility Workers' Union, told supporters "including presidential contender Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) "on Capitol Hill on June 5. Hussein, the first woman to head a major union in Iraq, and other Iraqi labor leaders kicked-off a visit to 12 cities nationwide, sponsored by US anti-war and labor groups. Speaking through an interpreter, she said if the Iraqi Parliament agreed to the law as Washington is pressing it to, it "would start a new series of tragedies... because the law allows more than 70 percent of the profits [to be] under the control" of foreign companies. "This is a project for the privatization of the Iraqi economy," she said. Also with her on the visit is Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions. The visit, only the second by Iraqi labor leaders since the March 2003 US-led invasion, is sponsored by US Labor Against the War, the American Friends Service Committee and United for Peace and Justice. (UPI)