Iraqi Oil Workers Throw Out KBR, Reconstruct Their Own WorkplacesAutonomously

Ewa Jasiewicz

Occupied Basra, 12/12/03
Southern Oil Company Trade Unionists have declared their workplaces ano-go zone for Halliburton, formerly headed by US Vice Presicent DickCheny's, subsidiary Kellog Brown and Root. KBR was give a no-bidcontractby USAID to reconstruct bomb-shattered oil refineries and installationsin Iraq. Included in the contratcs was authorisation to export andmarketIraqi Oil.

The SOC Union however, representing over 10,000 workers hasbanned all KBR represntatives and foreign workers from entering theirsites. SOC Union Head Hassan Jum'a says, ''Till this moment we haventneeded any foreigners to come in. We can do everything ourselves'.
Worker unrest errupted in Bergeseeya oil refinery and control section inOctober following the employment of Indian and Pakistani labourers byKuwaiti subcontractors Al Khorrafi Company. Workers staged a wildcattwo-day strike, physically threw out the foreign workers and demanded aportion of the 70% unemployed population of Iraq be employed instead.Theemployment of foreign labourers was halted immediately.
Occupation Watch visited SOC workers in the North Rumeilla crude oilpumping station, drilling and gas company and discovered that workershadbeen carrying out reconstruction work independently, using their ownworntools, canibalised spare parts from old equipment and parts purchasedform the local market. Ali Mohammad Jowad, an engineer working in thewater injection section of the station told OW, 'We havent seen any KBRemployee do any repair work whatsoever. They are not involved in anyreconstruction in any way. KBR came and checked our equipment andpromised to repair looted equipment but until this moment, nothing isrepaired'.
Workers started autonomously reconstructing in June with cleaning andrepairing what they could including water pumps and oil well safetygauges. 'During this preparing' recalls Ali Mohammad, 'We alsoconsidered that we need a place to rest and sleep so we built a placefor ourselves to stay in too'. According to workers, Reconstruction is40% of what it needs to be with regards to buildings and workers haverebuilt 50% of their equipment autonomously. 'KBR hasn't even seen ourwork, they've said Nothing about our repairs. All our work has been ourown' says Ali Mohammad. Many of the same workers who rebuilt NorthRumeilla following the devastation of the first gulf war 13 years agoalso paticipated in reconstruction again this war-round.
Hassan Jum'a, Head of the SOC Union, father of 6,and living in adecrepit, crumbling house in the 1999 missile-blasted neighbourhood ofJhoomouria where piles of garbage rot in the street, is well respectedthroughout Basra, not only for his hardline position on workers rightsand refusal of any 'foreign interference' including Occupationadminsitration orders and rulings, but also for bringing together bothcommunists and religious party members as location representatives intheUnion. Uncompromising, direct and posessing a totally unreadable face,hepresides over seven union councils in seven different locations.
He told OW that Bremer's June Public Notice (being implemented gleefullyby bosses throughout Iraq like an Order) has had no effect on them.Bremer's notice declares that the CPA 'respects Iraqi law' includinganti-worker Baath dictatorship law, chiefly 1987's order 151 whichturnedall Iraqi workers into civil servants - state employees, forbadeindependent trade unions and absorbed all workers into state-run Unionsfunctioning as organs of surveillence and repression. 'Nothing haschanged since Bremer's dictates' he states flatly.
The SOC union does however have full management backing. 'The GD meetsall out demands', says Jum'a, 'sometimes he signs our orders withoutevenlooking at them'. And indeed the Union has members within all levels ofthe company from buying committee members to reward and bonusescomittees, plus its own minibuses and building and has been holdingregular ceremonies marking the latest autnomous worker reconstructioneffort. The most recent was in Majnoon , two weeks ago which saw workersrebuild the damaged refinery independently, using KBR materials butrefusing any KBR personel involvement. KBR were furious at thebarring.
'At first they refused to supply us with the materials but in the sametime we were insisting in our demands - we insisted that Iraqi peoplemade the repairs', told us jum'a. ' Then they tried to negotiate 50%KBR,50% Iraqis, we said no, they then bargained for 5% foreign workers, then1% but we still refused. Drivers are the only foreigners allowedanywherenear'. 'Several times KBR engineers told us ' We are amused by the wayyou are working' and they were suprised at the fast results'.
Indeed, the mirage of the mystified 'West Knows Best' multibilliondollar reconstruction industry falls apart when undermined by the truthof ordinary Iraqi workers rebuilding their own country using theinventiveness, ingenuity and experimentality they learned throughout the13-years of collectively punishing UN-US-UK enforced sanctions andrefusing all moves to privatise their workplaces. However, despitetheseskills and talents borne under duresse, further training and newtechnologies - with no strings attached - are deeply desired by workersat all levels of industry, in order to explore, diversify and build uponskills already aqcuired and foster greater autonomy and non-reliance onforeign experts and corporations.