From USLAW: "Dear Colleague" letter on Iraqi labor rights

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: US Labor Against War <uslaw@xxxxxxx>   
Subject: [ilrtf] Encourage Members of Congress to Sign On! 
Date: Feb 9, 2004 3:03 PM 


Dear Labor Antiwar Activist:

U.S. Labor Against the War has been working with Representatives Barbara Lee 
(Dem., CA), Sam Farr (Dem., CA) and Dennis Kucinich (Dem., OH) to increase 
pressure on the Bush administration to fully respect and enforce the rights of 
Iraqi workers to organize and bargain -- rights enshrined in the Conventions of 
the International Labor Organization.

Representatives Lee, Farr and Kucinich have cosigned a "Dear Colleague" letter 
to solicit signatories on a letter to the administration condemning its 
enforcement of a 1987 Saddam Hussein ban on unions and bargaining for Iraqi 
workers employed by public enterprises (a majority of all workers), and its 
failure to honor their rights to join unions of their choice and to bargain 
under these international conventions.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Please contact your own member of Congress to ask that they cosign this letter 
and encourage other members to do likewise.  A copy of the "Dear Colleague" 
letter and the letter to the administration are reproduced below and can be 
downloaded in PDF format on Congressional stationery from the USLAW website at 
--

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/resources/resource.php?id=391

Ask your union and labor council to formally endorse this effort and to join in 
the request.  Ask your local union/CLC president or legislative director to 
call your representative or their key staff to ask the member of Congress to 
sign on.  For those who need more convincing, organize a delegation to visit 
their local office and/or a letter writing campaign. 

After you have contacted your representative, please let USLAW know the outcome 
of your effort.  Even the act of making this request will help raise their 
awareness of the problem and put the issue of labor rights in Iraq on their 
radar screen.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
["Dear Colleague Letter" - Original on Congressional stationery]


HELP IRAQI WORKERS GET THEIR JOBS BACK!

The best means to a stable Iraq is to get the Iraqi workforce back to work! A 
strong workplace environment means a strong, democratic economy.


Dear Colleague:

Please join us in signing the attached letter to Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of 
Defense, and Paul Bremer, U.S. Administrator of Occupied Iraq, to demand jobs, 
a living wage and labor rights for the working people of Iraq. If we are 
serious about post-conflict reconstruction and rebuilding Iraq to be a 
democratic member of the international community, we must give it the tools to 
do so. A healthy workforce is integral to that effort.

The current situation for workers in Iraq is intolerable. There is massive 
unemployment ranging from 60% to 70% of the working age population, with no 
system whatsoever of unemployment compensation benefits or any type of 
subsistence income for people to survive on until jobs become available. The 
announced plan of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to 
privatize hundreds of state-owned enterprises will cause thousands more to lose 
their jobs and add to the misery of Iraqi families. Wages for the majority of 
those who are employed are $60 a month, the same as under the Saddam Hussein 
government, but absent the bonuses, profit sharing and subsidies for food and 
housing that formerly supplemented low wages and made it possible for Iraqi 
workers to maintain a nominal standard of living. Of the $87 billion that 
Congress recently approved for the occupation and reconstruction o
 f Iraq, nothing was allocated either to restore the wages and benefits of 
Iraqi workers or to provide a stipend for those who are unemployed.

In addition, efforts by Iraqis to organize to improve their conditions have 
been met with repression by the CPA. Leaders of the Union of the Unemployed of 
Iraq have several times been arrested and then released without charge. On Dec. 
6, 2003, the headquarters of one of the main labor federations was ransacked, 
files were confiscated and eight leaders were held overnight and then released, 
with no explanation given and no charges having been brought against them. 
Incomprehensibly, the CPA is enforcing a law from the Saddam Hussein era that 
forbids unionization by workers in the public sector and state-owned 
enterprises which employ 70% of the Iraqi workforce.

One of the widely recognized cornerstones of a democratic society is a free and 
independent labor movement. The attached letter to Sec. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bremer 
calls on the CPA to provide jobs or income to Iraqi workers, to pay a living 
wage, and to allow Iraqi workers to exercise internationally-recognized labor 
rights -- the right to organize independent unions of their own choosing and to 
bargain collectively, free from interference and repression. The letter asks 
Rumsfeld and Bremer to provide a detailed plan and timeline for meeting these 
goals.

Please join us in signing this letter. No democratic society can take root -- 
in Iraq or elsewhere -- unless working people enjoy basic freedoms and a decent 
standard of living.

To sign on or for more information, please contact Rochelle Dornatt (w/Farr) at 
5-2861 or Rochelle.Dornatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Sincerely,


Sam Farr -- Member of Congress
Barbara Lee -- Member of Congress
Dennis Kucinich -- Member of Congress

------------------------------------------------------
  

January XX, 2004


The Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, United States of America

Mr. Paul Bremer, U.S. Administrator, Occupied Iraq


Dear Messrs. Rumsfeld and Bremer:

Reports from many sources - the International Labor Organization, the 
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, numerous published reports, 
and an eye-witness account recently issued by U.S. Labor Against the War (copy 
enclosed) -- indicate that a deplorable situation currently exists for the 
working men and women of Iraq:

* Massive unemployment, with estimates ranging from 60% to 70% - leaving most 
employable persons unable to provide for their families.

* No system of unemployment compensation benefits or any type of subsistence 
income -- leaving no safety net for persons previously employed but displaced 
because of the war.

* Wages of $60 per month for the vast majority of those who are employed -- a 
figure clearly inadequate to sustain life, let alone support a family.

* Elimination of the bonuses and subsidies for food and housing that formerly 
supplemented cash wages in Iraq -- causing a sharp decline in real income.

* No system governing hours of work, health and safety conditions, overtime pay 
provisions, child labor, and other labor standards for Iraqi workers -- thus 
encouraging exploitation of workers.

The stated intention of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to 
privatize hundreds of state-owned enterprises which provide the bulk of jobs in 
Iraq will exacerbate all of these problems, causing additional massive job loss 
and further deprivation and hardship for Iraqi workers and their families.

Efforts by Iraqi workers to organize to remedy these problems have been 
discouraged by the CPA, if not met with out-and-out resistance and repression. 
Leaders of the Unemployed Union of Iraq have several times been arrested and 
then released without charge. On Dec. 6, 2003, U.S. soldiers raided the 
headquarters of the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions, ransacked the office, 
confiscated the files, arrested eight of the leaders, and then released them 
the next day without charge. Most alarmingly, the Coalition Provisional 
Authority is enforcing a 1987 Saddam Hussein law prohibiting unionization and 
collective bargaining in the public sector and state-owned enterprises which 
employ 70% of the Iraqi workforce.

We believe that nothing resembling a democratic society can take root unless 
working people enjoy basic, internationally-recognized labor rights -- the 
right to organize independent unions of their own choosing and to bargain 
collectively to improve their standard of living, free of interference and 
repression. This is no less true in Iraq than in the U.S.  Previous Iraqi 
governments have ratified ILO conventions 87 and 98, codifying these basic 
labor rights, and they should be given the force of law by the U.S.-led 
Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Further, with U.S. government officials projecting that hundreds of thousands 
of Iraqi workers are expected to be employed, principally by U.S.-based 
corporations, on 2,311 planned reconstruction projects over the next two years, 
the CPA needs to establish a system of labor standards: a livable minimum wage, 
overtime pay provisions, health and safety protections, prohibitions on child 
labor, statutory paid time off, essential health care and other social 
benefits, and so forth. Perhaps most urgently, the CPA must establish a system 
of unemployment benefits to provide sustenance to the millions of unemployed 
until jobs become available. Plans to privatize state-owned enterprises should 
be halted until the Iraqi people themselves have the opportunity to decide the 
future of their economy and their country.

Please provide us with answers to the following questions:

1. What law or decree currently governs the right of Iraqi workers to organize 
unions and bargain collectively? Is the CPA enforcing this law/decree? If not, 
why not?

2. What are the plans of the CPA to implement ILO conventions 87 and 98, 
previously ratified by the government of Iraq, guaranteeing the right of 
workers to organize and bargain collectively?

3. For what reason was the office of the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions raided 
by U.S. soldiers on Dec. 6, 2003? Why were eight IFTU leaders arrested, held 
overnight, and then released without charges being brought against them? What 
guarantees can you provide that repression of trade unions and their leaders 
will not become a continuing feature of occupied Iraq?

4. What law or decree currently sets minimum labor standards for Iraqi workers? 
What plan does the CPA have to establish a minimum wage that can sustain a 
family, a standard workweek with requirements for overtime pay, a mechanism for 
assuring healthy and safe workplaces, provision of essential health care, 
prohibitions on the exploitation of child labor, requirements for paid time 
off, etc.?

5. What plans are there to establish a system of unemployment compensation 
benefits for the unemployed workers of Iraq?

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We await your reply. 


Sincerely,



--------------------------------------------------
U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
USLAW is a network of unions and other labor organizations 
opposed to U.S. foreign policy of unilateralism and preemptive military 
aggression, and the consequent erosion of economic and job security, essential 
social services and government programs, and increased militarism, xenophobia, 
discrimination and threat to Constitutional rights, liberty and democracy they 
generate.

www.uslaboragainstwar.org
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.O. Box 153
1718 "M" Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

Bob Muehlenkamp and Gene Bruskin, Co-convenors 
Amy Newell, National Organizer 
Michael Eisenscher, Organizer & Web Coordinator 
Erin McGrath, Administrative Staff  




- - - - -
John Lacny

People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!


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