Labor Updates (8/8/07)

Two out of three Iraqis want the government to maintain control of Iraq’s vast oil reserves, reports John Hilary in an editorial Tuesday on the Guardian Unlimited blog website. In related news, the Iraqi oil minister recently banned “trade unions from participating in any discussion on the new oil law,” Hilary reports. “Shockingly, this directive relies on labor and trade union laws developed” under the Saddam Hussein regime, said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a statement last Thursday. “This attempt to silence Iraqi unions is an unacceptable attack on human rights in Iraq and a breach of the most fundamental rights to association,” Sweeney added.