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| Sunday,
June 10th, 2:00-4:00 pm |
Voices
of Iraqi Workers:
Faleh
Abood Umara
General Secretary
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
Faleh Abood Umara is
a founding member of the oil workers union
and worked for the Southern Oil Company
in Basra for 28 years. In 1998, he was
detained by the Hussein regime for his
activities on behalf of his coworkers.
He has served on the union’s negotiating
team with both the Oil Ministry and British
occupation authorities to defend the rights
and interests of oil industry workers
in the post Saddam era. The Southern Oil
Workers Union has conducted strikes against
outsourcing to foreign workers and schemes
to privatize the oil sector.
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Hashmeya
Muhsin al Hussein
President, Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers
Union
Hashmeya Muhsin al Hussein
is the first woman to head a national
high school, she went to work at the Southern
Company for Electricity, in the labor
movement. She rose to leadership of the
Electricity Workers Union in Basra and
recently was elected its national president.
She serves on the executive committee
of the Basra Work Unions Coalition. She
is head of the Women Workers’ Bureau
and is a leader in the Iraqi Women’s
Association. She and her 7-year old son
have received death threats as a result
of her activism.
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| This
is a rare opportunity for people
in the US to dialogue directly with Iraqi
workers and labor leaders about current attempts
to control Iraq’s oil, women's issues
under the occupation, and the role of unions
in creating a non-sectarian, progressive Iraq.
These courageous leaders struggled for years
against Saddam Hussein’s repression.
Now they have stepped forward to organize
workers seeking to improve conditions at their
workplaces and in their lives under the difficult
conditions of occupation, sectarian division,
and violence. They are fighting not only for
basic labor rights for all workers but also
for women’s equality and against privatization
of their national resources. |
Sunday,
June 10th, 2:00-4:00pm
Location:
Laborer's
Hall
509 Emory St. at Coleman Ave.
(South of Hedding
St.)
San José, CA
Suggested
Donation: $5 - $15 sliding
scale
(No one turned away for lack of funds.)
For more information, contact:
joan@wilpfsanjose.org or (408) 243-4359
Sponsors:
South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, Building
& Construction Trades Council, Communications
Workers of America Local 9423, Plumbers
& Fitters Local 393, Laborers Local
270, California Nurses Association, South
Bay Mobilization, San Jose Peace Center,
Women’s International League for Peace
and Freedom, Friends of South Asia, Veterans
for Peace, Labor Party, Green Party of Santa
Clara County, Arab-American Cultural Center,
Our Developing World, Students for Justice-SJSU
Endorsed by Peninsula Peace and Justice
Center
National Sponsors:
U.S. Labor Against the War, American Friends
Service Committee,
United for Peace and Justice.
Regional: KPFA |
South
Bay Mobilization / (408) 998-8504
Educate, Involve and Mobilize for Peace and Justice
www.sbm4peace.org
| Biographies
of Visiting Iraqi Labor Leaders and their
Organizations
Faleh Abood Umara,
General Secretary, Southern Oil Company
Union, Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers’
Unions
Faleh Abood Umara was one of the six Iraqi
trade union leaders who visited 26 cities
in the U.S. in June 2005, in a tour sponsored
by USLAW. He is 48 years old, married with
two sons and two daughters. He is a founding
member of the oil workers union and worked
for the Southern Oil Company in Basra for
28 years. He is also a member of the local
council in the Al-Hadi district in Basra.
In 1998, he was detained by the Hussein
regime for his activities on behalf of his
coworkers. He has served on the union’s
negotiating team with both the Oil Ministry
and British occupation authorities to defend
the rights and interests of oil industry
workers in the post-Saddam era.
General Union of Oil Employees (Basra)
and Iraq Federation of Oil Unions
The GUOE is an independent, secular union
representing 23,000 oil workers in Basra,
Amara, and Nassirriyah. The union grew out
of the Southern Oil Company Union and now
encompasses ten trade union councils in
nine Iraqi oil companies. GUOE forced KBR,
the Halliburton subsidiary, out of refinery
workplaces shortly after the invasion despite
Cheney's award of a 'no bid' contract. Members
also went on a two-day strike last August,
winning their demands for higher pay. The
union has taken a strong stand against any
plans for privatization and foreign domination
of the oil sector. It is leading the fight
to prevent imposition of a “hydrocarbon
law” drafted by the Bush administration
that would lead to foreign corporate control
of more than two-thirds of Iraq’s
oil reserves. After GUOE's first anti-privatization
conference last summer, the U.S. and Iraqi
governments responded by freezing the union's
bank accounts.
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Hashmeya
Muhsin Hussein, President, Electrical Utility
Workers Union- GFIW
Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein is the first woman
to head a national union in Iraq. She was
born in Basra in 1955. Following high school,
she went to work at the Southern Company
for Electricity. There she became active
in the labor movement. She rose to leadership
of the Electricity Workers Union in Basra
and recently was elected its national president.
She serves on the executive committee of
the Basra Work Unions Coalition. She is
head of the Women Workers’ Bureau
and is a leader in the Iraqi Women’s
Association. She and her 7-year old son
have received death threats as a result
of her activism.
General Federation of Iraqi Workers
(GFIW)
Her union is affiliated with the General
Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW). In January
2004, workers in the Najibeeya, Haartha
and Al Zubeir electrical generating stations
mounted a wildcat strike, stormed the administration
buildings, declared the lower September
wage schedule void, and vowed to shut off
power if salaries were not raised. The ministry
agreed to return to the old scale. Last
June the union organized large demonstrations
to protest government decisions to hire
private contractors to do reconstruction
work, replacing the industry’s own
employees. The problem persists.
In the late 1970s Saddam outlawed independent
unions and forced union leaders underground
or into exile. It their place, he imposed
state-controlled unions. The GFIW grew out
of an underground workers’ organization,
the Workers’ Democratic Trade Union
Movement (WDTUM), which resisted Ba’athism.
The WDTUM publicized Hussein’s crimes
from exile until the collapse of his regime.
Shortly after the collapse, the Iraqi Federation
of Trade Unions (IFTU) was formed; it was
later renamed the General Federation of
Iraqi Workers. The GFIW now claims 200,000
members from Iraq’s diverse ethnic
and religious population, representing Iraq’s
core industries. The GFIW is committed to
creating independent trade unions and improved
conditions for working people.
Source: www.USLaborAgainstWar.org
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Hashmeya
Muhsin al Hussein (wearing light colored
scarf)
President, Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union
leads a march on May 1, 2007 in Iraq
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