Musayyib power plant sit-inThe March monthly bulletin of the Federation of Workers’ Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI) notes numerous labor actions in the energy sector throughout the country last month. On Feb. 4, thousands of electricity workers walked off the job and marched through the streets in Basra, Musayyib, Hilla and Kut to demand moves against corrupt bureaucrats in the Energy Ministry, electrification of poor districts, better housing for workers, and redress of other grievances. When there was no response to their petitions, the workers held sit-ins at power stations and industrial sites in these cities the following day. Some 7,000 workers at the Ur industrial complex near Nasiriyah also held a sit-in to demand upgrading of power facilities, as well as the right to free unionization and repeal of the Saddam-era anti-union Law 150.
Electricity workers march in Basra
Musayyib thermal power station sit-in
See our last posts on Iraq, the civil resistance, and labor’s struggle for popular control of the energy sector.
