Most Iraqi workers hoped the fall of Saddam Hussein would liberate them, enabling them to recover their lost rights. Chief among them was the right to an independent union. In 1987, the regime of Saddam Hussein reclassified most Iraqi workers--those who labored in the huge state enterprises that are the heart of the country's economy--as civil servants. As such, they were prohibited from forming unions and bargaining.
The occupation, however, didn't lift this decree. It is still in force, as privatization looms like a sword of Damocles over those workers and the factories on which they depend for survival. And while keeping in place the ban on unions, the occupation authorities have kept wages low and unemployment high.
For Iraqi workers, the signal could not be clearer: The overthrow of Saddam did not bring liberation.
This is the guts of this story to me, although the attack on IFTU headquarters by the occupation kinda reinforces the CPA's attitude to unions. Go sign the petition
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