Iraq's weakened unions fight foreign oil firms

Source: Reuters

BASRA, Iraq, July 13 (Reuters) - Unions are lobbying against Iraq's new oil contract with BP (BP.L) and China's CNPC, but the weakened labour movement may have a hard time thwarting deals desperately needed to revive a struggling oil sector.

The Federation of Oil Unions of Iraq and the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq have condemned the Oil Ministry's decision to award a foreign consortium the contract to develop Rumaila, the country's largest producing oilfield.

"We have written a letter to BP and the British consul in Basra, warning them against entering Basra as it will be illegal ... If they do, we will protest and strike," said Faleh Aboud Amara, a top official with the Federation of Oil Unions.

Unions were one of the opponents of the ministry's plan to award foreign firms contracts to develop as many as eight oil and gas fields in Iraq's first major energy auction last month, a centrepiece of government efforts to more than double output of around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLD40522020090713

BP and CNPC were one of the few companies interested in bidding, due to the tough terms offered by Iraq. Exxon and the other guys walked. Iraq can't do it themselves and need the assistance of foreign oil companies.

" Ali Abbas Khafif, head of the Worker Councils and Unions' branch in Basra, Iraq's southern oil hub, said the Rumaila deal would violate Iraqi law because it was brokered in the absence of new national energy legislation, whose passage has been held up for years by a bitter feud between Arabs and minority Kurds."

"He also complained about the terms of the fixed-fee contract, which he said would overcompensate companies, and said such deals might lead to greater unemployment in the oil sector."

Maybe they're interested in improving the position of oil workers as a part of this move. The state is certainly not representing workers. There, like everywhere else, workers need to defend their own interests with the means at their disposal.

They are still under the delusion that the Iraqi People own the oil.

Surely we have some leftover cluster bombs or depleted uranium that would help them see the light?

:kick:

I have no time to look it up now, but would be in keeping with the rest of their agenda. Good for the unions for standing up to Imperialism.

up their oil unions.