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Reports From Iraq > Wed., Mar. 10, 2004
Oil Workers Want Some Oil Money
Kirkuk General Federation of Trade Unions President Nozad
Ismael Salim stands in the lobby of his union's headquarters.
Like much of Kirkuk, the offices were looted when the
American occupation began. |
Kirkuk, Iraq -- Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton may
have gotten more than $2 billion for the "reconstrutcion
of Iraq," but that doesn't mean the contract's benefits
are trickling down to the average Iraqi.
Even the average Iraqi oil worker.
Take the case of Awlan Khalif. The University education oil
industry technician fled to Soviet Russia in 1974 to escape
the brutal repression of Saddam Hussein's regime. Now that
Saddam's gone he's been able to return to his home town, Kirkuk,
but that doesn't mean he's making a living.
While Halliburton posts annual revenues of more than $16
billion, Awlan Khalif makes $200 a month. "After thirty
years I have returned to my job at the Iraqi petroleum company.
But in my whole life I haven't gotten any benefit from this
job in terms of my rights and my salary. And there still hasn't
been any benefit for my country."
When Halliburton came in to manage Iraq's oil fields they
did give all the workers a raise -- in fact they tripled everyone's
salary. But Iraqi oil workers still wonder why they get paid
so little. Now that Saddam's gone, they figure they're due
for a fair share of their country's oil wealth.
"If we compare what similarly experienced engineers
get in other countries that have less oil than Iraq, it is
much, much more," muses Bahdin Faraji, who has worked
at Iraq's northern oil terminal in Kirkuk. "Still we
don't know where the money is going."
There's certainly a lot of money to be made off Kirkuk's
oil. British Petroleum has estimated the value of Kirkuk's
proven oil reserves at $80 billion.
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