Ewa Jasiewicz
ewa@platformlondon.org
The Guardian Unlimited
May 15, 2007
For information on Iraq’s oil law: PLATFORM and Hands Off Iraqi Oil
Today, shareholders are converging in London and The Hague for Shell’s annual general meeting. As investors hobnob in the Champagne Suite of the Hammersmith Novotel, those working in the oilfields that the company seeks to control are ready to strike over an oil law that Shell has helped to craft.
The focus is the culmination of four years campaigning by the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU). Demands range from bread and butter issues such as land allocation, unpaid wages, holidays, health and safety and full-time status for temporary workers, to wider political issues which have been the founding bedrock of the union: protection of Iraq’s oil wealth from foreign companies and a say in the future of the oil industry. Shell is one of the companies that the union has cautioned against entering Iraq “under the guise of so-called production sharing agreements”.
