News

Oil workers of Iraq .
Statement by Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions to 2008 Chevron and ExxonMobil Shareholder Meetings

by by Hassan Juma'a Awad, President, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions c/o USLAW
June 6th, 2008
On May 28, 2008, Chevron and ExxonMobil Corporations will each conduct their annual shareholder meetings. Chevron will convene its meeting at its world headquarters in San Ramon, CA. ExxonMobil will conduct its meeting in Dallas, Texas. Antiwar, environmental and other social justice organizations will conduct protests at each event.
The following statement from the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq to the shareholders of each corporation will be presented at press conferences conducted in conjunction with these protests. The statement was transmitted by Hassan Juma'a Awad, President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, to U.S. Labor Against the War for presentation at these events.

AAUMC calls upon labor unions in the US to support labor organizers imprisoned by the Egyptian Government, the second largest recipient of US foreign aid [$2 billion].

Members of the independent Textile Workers League: Kamal el-Fayoumi, Tarek Amin and blogger Kareem el-Beheiry were detained on the 6th of April during a two-day uprising by the urban poor and textile workers in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla, protesting the price increases of basic commodities. A strike was scheduled on that day to take place at Ghazl el-Mahalla, the largest textile mill in the Middle East and home to 27,000 workers, but was aborted by police troops occupying the factory. Peaceful demonstrations erupted in the town after the failure of the strike, and soon turned bloody with police opening fire on the protestors, killing at least three.

http://arabist.net/arabawy/2008/04/06/police-abort-mahalla-strike/

As we witness the continuous massacres against the people of Gaza , who are fighting for their survival as a society, we also share with them the sorrow of losing a beloved leader, Dr. Ahmad Maslamani who died suddenly as a result of a blood clot in his brain. He was fifty years old, and leaves behind him a wife two sons and a daughter.

Dr. Maslamani devoted his life to the struggle for liberation for the Palestinian people. He was truly a people's leader and will be missed very much. We would like to express our condolences to Dr. Ahmad Maslamani's family, his comrades and his colleagues from Union of Health Workers Committees and Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

The U.S. administration of George W. Bush is trying unskillfully and unsuccessfully to cover up the unprecedented political and military failures of its last two terms in office, by claiming to deliver "peace" in the Middle East. This has meant yet more attacks upon the suffering people of Palestine: apartheid wall, home demolitions, siege on Gaza, miserable life in the refugee camps, new camps for Palestinian refugees now forced to flee Iraq, censoring and arresting activists in the U.S., hand picking leaders and squeezing them again and again, planting civil war among family members - all in an attempt to obtain more concessions.

Hermanos y Hermanas,

On Thursday, September 27th the janitorial contractor at 90-7th St. (the new Federal Building) was notified the effective, Monday, October 1st they would no longer be holding that contract and that they would need to inform their staff of the lay-offs. The janitors were notified of the lay-offs on Friday, September 28th. Exemplar, the new contractor, did not offer any of the janitors employment or give any explanation as to why. The Government Services Agencies which is in charge of offering contracts to vendors gave no explanation as to why the sudden change was made or even went to say thank you to the janitors.