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FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6843
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
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C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000510 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR SAMANTHA VINOGRAD 
PLS PASS TO USTR (SHACKLEFORD, DEANGELIS, SANDLER) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2020 
TAGS: KBCT ECON ETRD XF IZ
SUBJECT: AUSTR DELANEY VISIT: GOI PROGRESS ON LABOR RIGHTS 
 
REF: A. BAGHDAD 190 
     ¶B. 09 BAGHDAD 3202 
     ¶C. 08 BAGHDAD 4060 
     ¶D. 05 BAGHDAD 4051 
     ¶E. MCFARLAND-DEANGELIS E-MAIL 02/14/2010 
 
Classified By: EMIN John Desrocher for reasons 1.4 (b,d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: The Shura Council has completed its 
constitutional review of a draft labor code and will send it 
to the Council of Ministers "in the coming days," Shura 
President Ghazi Milo Ibrahim al-Janabi told Assistant United 
States Trade Representative Michael Delaney during Delaney's 
February 7-11 visit to Baghdad.  Government, parliament, and 
justice officials told Delaney that movement on the modern 
labor code -- which would replace existing Saddam-era laws 
and complement ongoing social security, pension, and welfare 
reform efforts -- had been slow because of: 1) the need for 
the Shura Council to reconcile dozens of fragmented 
Saddam-era labor laws (ref A); 2) a drawn-out 
consensus-building process with union leaders and employers; 
and, 3) bombings at the Ministry of Justice that injured 
members of the GOI's labor code review committee.  Labor 
leaders generally criticized the GOI's slow progress on the 
labor code, but focused complaints on "government 
interference" in internal union affairs.  Delaney heard 
widespread understanding that the existing Saddam-era labor 
laws -- which the new code will supersede -- are 
unconstitutional and need to be repealed.  ILO Beirut is 
organizing a May workshop to review the GOI edits.  End 
Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
AUSTR DELANEY'S FEBRUARY 7-11 VISIT TO BAGHDAD 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2. (C) AUSTR Michael Delaney traveled to Baghdad February 
7-11 and met with:  Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Shaways, 
National Investment Commission Acting Chair Dr. Sami 
al-Araji, Acting Minister of Trade Dr. Safaa al-Din al-Safi, 
Minister of Finance Bayan Jabr al-Zubaidy, Acting Minister of 
Agriculture Dr. Akram al-Hakeem, Deputy Labor Minister Nouri 
Nasem al-Helfi, Council of Representatives Economic and 
Services Committee Chair Haider al-Abadi, and Shura Council 
President Judge Ghazi Milo Ibrahim al-Janabi.  Delaney hosted 
a special meeting of the Strategic Framework Agreement's 
(SFA) Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) Trade and Investment 
Working Group and a follow-on dinner that included Director 
General-level officials from the Ministries of Labor, Trade, 
Finance, Industry and Minerals, Health, and Interior.  He 
hosted a labor roundtable for union leaders and led 
discussion at a business roundtable sponsored by the 
International Business Council of Iraq (IBC-I). 
 
¶3. (SBU) Delaney advocated swift movement to modernize Iraq's 
labor laws, encouraged officials to take greater advantage of 
the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), and 
solicited comments on a June 24, 2009 AFL-CIO petition 
seeking revocation of Iraq's GSP benefits. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
SHURA COUNCIL - ILO-ASSISTED LABOR CODE PASSED 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4. (C) In his February 8 meeting with Delaney, Shura Council 
President Judge Ghazi Milo Ibrahim al-Janabi announced that 
the Shura Council had "just completed" its constitutional 
review of the ILO-assisted draft labor code, which had been 
slowly working its way through Shura committees since 2007. 
Originally 24 Chapters and 200 Articles, the Shura review 
QOriginally 24 Chapters and 200 Articles, the Shura review 
resulted in some consolidation of provisions, reducing the 
draft Labor Code to 22 Chapters and 168 Articles, al-Janabi 
said.  The Shura board that reviewed and codified the 
legislation -- comprised of 21 advisors from GOI ministries, 
labor unions, and employer representatives -- "did not 
identify any conflict" between the draft law, Iraq's 
constitution, and the international labor standards enshrined 
in the draft code, according to al-Janabi.  Most edits, he 
said, were required because the original draft bill, borrowed 
from other models, had technical incompatibilities with Iraqi 
social and cultural norms.  Al-Janabi gave one example: 
 
-- The original draft law provided by ILO set the regular 
work week at Monday through Friday, limited the workday to 
eight hours, and set overtime compensation rules for work 
days and weekends.  When the Shura review board attempted to 
adjust the draft to fit Iraq's standard work week (i.e., 
Sunday through Thursday), labor representatives objected, 
arguing that the work week should be shortened to four days, 
al-Janabi said.  After weeks of negotiations on this single 
issue, the Shura Council brokered a compromise between the 
Ministry of Labor, union leaders, and employer 
representatives: the work week would be five days, seven 
hours per day.  Al-Janabi said the Board identified and 
reconciled approximately 300 action items that required 
similar deliberations during the three-year review. 
 
¶5. (C) In addition to the Shura Board's lengthy internal 
deliberations, al-Janabi attributed delays to 1) efforts to 
synchronize sections of the draft labor code with reforms 
that are still being crafted for other social services 
(social security, pension system and welfare reform) (ref A); 
and, 2) an impasse on a national debate over privatizing 
Iraq's massive, inefficient state owned enterprises (SOEs), 
Iraq's largest employment sector.  He told Delaney that Shura 
clerks were in the process of typing the Shura board's edits 
to finalize the draft.  (Note:  Over the course of the 
review, the Shura board hand-wrote hundreds of technical 
edits on a marked-up copy of the draft bill, according to 
al-Janabi.  End Note.)  When transcribed, the Shura Council 
will deliver the draft to the Council of Ministers, al-Janabi 
said.  The edits did not change the draft's compatibility 
with ILO's International Labor Standards, Al-Janabi said, 
including with respect to freedom of association and 
collective bargaining, forced labor and trafficking, child 
labor, equality in employment and occupation, and maritime 
labor standards, among others. 
 
---------------------------------- 
LABOR LEADERS - WE NEED MORE SPACE 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) In a February 9 roundtable hosted at the Embassy, 
labor leaders complained that: 1) current law recognized only 
one labor union, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers 
(GFIW), as the official labor advocacy group for Iraqi 
workers; 2) Decree 8750, which froze union assets in 2005 
pending union leadership elections, was still in force; 3) a 
GOI-imposed "union election process" amounted to government 
interference in internal union affairs; and, 4) inadequate 
labor protections would result in Iraqis losing jobs to 
migrant workers.  Union leaders unanimously agreed that the 
ILO-assisted draft labor code would remedy their complaints 
-- if implemented appropriately and without substantial 
edits. 
 
¶7. (C) Comment: As we expected, the roundtable provided labor 
leaders a platform for dramatic criticism of the GOI and the 
allegedly slow steps it is taking to modernize Iraq's labor 
environment.  Union leaders called the GOI "fascists" and 
"Hitlerists."  Delaney probed for specific examples of labor 
standards violations vis-a-vis the stated complaints. 
Participants unanimously identified the GOI's 
still-developing plans to impose a standard election process 
for union leaders.  Topics conspicuously missing from the 
discussion were health, safety and environment (HSE) 
protections, forced and compulsory labor, child labor, 
workplace discrimination, and a minimum wage. End Comment. 
 
¶8. (C) Hadi Ali Laafta, General Secretary, General Federation 
of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), and Hasim Trakchi, Chair, Iraq 
Federation of Industries, told Delaney that they sat on the 
QFederation of Industries, told Delaney that they sat on the 
2005 committee that drafted the ILO-assisted labor code, and 
on subsequent committees to refine it.  Laafta said he also 
sat on the Shura Board that had just completed the three-year 
labor code review.  Laafta credited himself with championing 
the inclusion of core labor standards in the draft, "I met 
with every member of government during this process," he 
said.  Laafta also claimed that GOI officials practiced a 
systemic campaign to ignore labor leaders and labor rights. 
 
¶9. (C) Comment: In a short, candid exchange, two roundtable 
participants (Hassan Juma'a Awad and Nazar Alwailli) 
expressed frustration with Laafta and to a lesser degree with 
Trakchi.  Though Laafta and Trakchi sat on GOI boards and 
commissions as labor representatives (seemingly a revelation 
to Awad and Alwailli), Awad and Alwailli asserted that 
neither had consulted other labor representatives during the 
labor code debate or during discussions with the GOI about a 
government regulated union election process.  End Comment. 
 
¶10. (C) Iraqi Labor Participants at Embassy Roundtable: 
 
 
- Mr. Hadi Ali Laafta, General Federation of Iraqi Workers 
- Mr. Hasim Trakchi, Chair, Iraq Federation of Industries 
- Mr. Hassan Juma'a Awad, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions 
- Mr. Nazar A.M. Alwailli, Iraq Federation of Industries 
 
--------------------------------------- 
GOI - AFL-CIO PETITION IGNORES PROGRESS 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (C) Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA) Deputy 
Minister Nouri Nasem al-Helfi told Delaney in a February 9 
meeting that the growing number of unions in Iraq, "unlike 
the Saddam-era," was indicative of "much more space for labor 
rights."  Al-Helfi confirmed that the Shura Council had 
completed its review of the ILO-assisted draft labor code, 
which, he said, would create additional space for unions.  A 
tri-partite committee, convened by MOLSA, and co-chaired by 
MOLSA legal advisors (two members), employer representatives 
(two members), and a union representative (one member), met 
regularly to:  1) work through issues identified by the Shura 
Council review of the draft ILO-assisted labor code; 2) 
prepare implementing regulations for the eventuality that the 
labor code passes; and, 3)  address general labor concerns, 
as necessary.  "The differences of opinion (among tripartite 
committee members) gives us invaluable insight, which we 
depend on," al-Hilfi said.  The Shura Council intended to 
forward the bill to the Council of Ministers "within a week 
or so." 
 
¶12. (C) "My full respect to the AFL-CIO," National Investment 
Commission Acting Chair and SFA Working Group Co-Chair Dr. 
Sami al-Araji told Delaney at the February 7 JCC working 
group meeting, "We would welcome their delegation to Iraq, so 
that they could see the realities on the ground."  "Every 
factory in Iraq has seven or eight unions now," al-Araji 
said.  "We are trying to protect our industries and our jobs 
and you complain about it," he said in reference to WTO 
concerns. "But, local news stations broadcast live coverage 
of workers' protesting.  These are signs that Iraq's labor 
rights environment is improving considerably," al-Araji said. 
 (Comment:  In a meeting on the same subject with al-Araji 
the next day, al-Araji pointed to his office television and 
translated parts of an Arab language broadcast that showed 
workers, complemented with protest signs, slogans, and 
T-shirts, demonstrating for higher wages outside of a factory 
in Basrah.  End Comment.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
ILO WORKSHOP TO REVIEW EDITS TO DRAFT LABOR CODE 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶13. (C) In a February 21 phone call following Delaney's 
visit, ILO Iraq Program Manager Ghassan Alsaffar (based in 
Amman) told econoff that ILO had met with MOLSA officials in 
Beirut to discuss the Shura Council's edits and that ILO 
expected to receive the final version of the Shura passed 
bill "within the coming days."  ILO Beirut will schedule a 
workshop in Beirut sometime in May, according to Alsaffar, 
"to review the law with our constituents and to ensure that 
the law is compliant with International Labor Standards." 
Alsaffar said he had heard from MOLSA officials that the 
Council of Ministers would not forward the draft code to the 
COR before March 7 national elections.  In the meantime, "ILO 
will translate the draft labor code." 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
EMPOWERING LABOR UNIONS IN IRAQ PROGRAM (EUI) 
QEMPOWERING LABOR UNIONS IN IRAQ PROGRAM (EUI) 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (C) Empowering Labor Unions in Iraq (EUI), a $3 million 
DRL-funded program implemented by Relief International, 
provides a platform for official and unofficial Iraqi labor 
unions to organize, train, and operate.  Relief International 
country director Dr. Yarub al-Shiraida, who attended the 
February 9 labor leaders roundtable, told Delaney that EUI's 
training and support activities have reached more than 57,000 
Iraqi laborers.  Specific programming includes training 
workshops, national and regional union resource centers that 
provide facilities for meetings, internet connectivity, 
library materials, office equipment, and small grants to 
unions for capacity-building, advocacy and membership 
development initiatives.  According to al-Shiraida, EUI held 
753 workshops attended by 16,309 workers in the last quarter 
of 2009. 
Training topics included: 
 
- What is a Trade Union?; 
- Importance of a Union in a Worker's Life; 
- Role of a Union in the Workplace; 
- Local and National Role of a Union; 
- Collective Negotiation; 
- Workers' rights in the Labor and Social Security Law; 
- History of Iraqi Trade Unions; 
- ILO Standards; 
- Role of Women and the Young in Trade Unions; 
- Gender. 
 
¶15. (C) NGO Participants in Labor Roundtable: 
 
- Mr. Yarub al-Shiraida, Country Director, Relief 
International 
- Mr. Farouk al-Salim, EUI Director, Relief International 
- Mr. Wesam Odeh, EUI Deputy Director, Relief International 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
COMMENT:  STEPS TOWARD AFFORDING WORKERS RIGHTS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶16. Comment: The Shura Council's progress on the draft labor 
code, after more than three years of thorough review and 
intensive deliberations, is encouraging.  We will not know if 
the Shura Council's changes are fully compliant with ILO core 
labor standards until the ILO has obtained, translated, and 
analyzed the final draft.  While many steps remain before 
this new reformed labor legislation becomes law, progress on 
this path is measurable, and the GOI appears keen on defacto 
implementation of labor protections even before the law is 
passed. 
 
¶17. (U) AUSTR Delaney has cleared this message. 
HILL