Workers union urges better protection of oil installations, personnel
by Ibrahim Sharif
The Iraqi Federation of Workers Trade Unions (IFTU) has urged the
authorities to upgrade security measures at the countrys oil
installations to protect personnel.
Oil workers and installations are target of repeated attacks by saboteurs
and rebels opposing U.S. occupation.
The IFTU organized a special meeting to discussion the oil industry and
conditions of oil workers amid an upsurge in violence in both Kirkuk in
the south and Basra in the north the countrys major oil producing
centers.
Oil refining operations at Baiji, a stronghold of anti-U.S. resistance,
have been targets of repeated attacks which have reduced output to less
than the half.
The union criticized current security measures which it described as
inadequate.
It said the newly formed battalions charged with protecting oil
installations were driven more by their sectarian and ethnic grounds
rather than concern over the countrys sole hard cash earner.
The oil sector must be place in honest hands whose aim is the service of
the Iraqi people who are not affected by their party affiliation or
ethnic and sectarian backgrounds, the union said in a statement.
The IFTU said it opposed all schemes to privatize the oil sector because
the countrys oil reserves are a property of the Iraqi people
only.