EDM 1689 reads as follows:
Iraqi Trade Unions
That this House supports the independent and democratic Iraqi trade union movement, mainly centred around the newly merged Iraqi Workers Federation (IWF) and the Kurdish trade unions, which play an important role in re-building of its devastated national economy and consolidating the current political process in order to create a democratic, united and federal state after years of repression and hardship at the hands of the deposed dictatorship of Saddam; is,
therefore, deeply disturbed that on 8 August 2005 the Iraqi council of ministers issued Decree 8750 which declared that union finances would be taken over by the government and that a new law on trade unionism would be developed by the government, without mentioning freedom of association which is a basic human right and one of the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) or the involvement of the Iraqi trade union movement; is further disturbed at recent reports that the government has replaced the leadership of the independent engineers’ union with its own appointees in a prima facie breach of freedom of association; welcomes the decision of professional organisations to create with the IWF an umbrella organisation to oppose Decree 8750; further congratulates the TUC for initiating global protests against Decree 8750 and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions for supporting the IWF’s complaint formally requesting that the ILO intervene directly with the Iraqi government; and supports the IWF and others in all available democratic means to stop this undemocratic practice against Iraqi workers.
Dave Anderson
Joan Ruddock
Dai Harvard
Rob Marris
Sharon Hodgson
Peter Bottomley
Sarah McCarthy-Fry
George Howarth
Bob Spink