Labor Updates (6/12/07)

"The Bush administration has no love for unions anywhere, but in Iraq it has a special reason for hating them," reports labor journalist David Bacon in an editorial on Truth Out website. "They are the main opposition to the occupation's economic agenda, and the biggest obstacle to that agenda's centerpiece - the privatization of Iraq's oil. At the same time, unions have become the only force in Iraq trying to maintain at least a survival living standard for the millions of Iraqis who still have to go to work every day, in the middle of the war." For Bacon's extensive report on the Iraqi oil worker's strike, click here…Letter carriers collected over 70.7 million pounds of food donations last month in the nation's largest one-day effort to combat hunger, the National Association of Letter Carriers reports.  The food was delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters to help needy families. The letter carriers collected the food along postal routes on Saturday, May 12, in over 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions. The amount was a slight increase over last year and the fourth consecutive year the union's "Stamp Out Hunger" drive has exceeded 70 million pounds.  It brought the total for the drive's 15 years to over 836 million pounds. Faikard Fatih, a young worker in the Basra Oil Refinery, photo by David Bacon